Caring and Evil

Abstract

Nel Noddings, in Caring: A Feminine Approach to Ethics and Moral Education (1984), presents and develops an ethic of care as an alternative to an ethic that treats justice as a bask concept. I argue that this care ethic is unable to give an adequate account of ethical relationships between strangers and that it is also in danger of valorizing relationships in which carers are seriously abused.

Rights, Responsibility, and Relationship: Motivations for Women's Social Activism

“…Noddings's ethic of care has been criticized, however, because it focuses only on care that is extended to those in close geographic or social proximity (Card, 1990;Carse & Nelson, 1996). Conceptualizing Noddings's care ethic as "particularistic and personal," Carse and Nelson (1996, p. 29) criticized it for failing to provide guidance for countering social evil.…”

Justice, genre et entreprise

“…Noddings est en effet une des rares -peut-être même la seule -à avoir nié, à partir d'une éthique du care, l'existence de devoirs de care ou de justice envers les personnes dont de son point de vue vient effectivement donner une caution morale à la prise de décisions partiales par les cadres, ainsi qu'à leur résistance à la régulation gouvernementale. Dans cette lignée, des auteurs se voient justifiés de proposer que, face au dilemme concernant le choix des fournisseurs avec lesquels conclure des ententes (un dilemme dont il reste par ailleurs difficile de saisir la portée morale), il serait recommandé de choisir celui avec lequel une relation est déjà nouée (Burton et Dunn, 1996 : 144 Card, 1990). Si les éthiciens des affaires s'étaient référés aux théories du care formulées par des auteurs contemporains comme Eva Feder Kittay (1999), Virginia Held (2006) ou Daniel Engster (2007, ils seraient parvenus à des conclusions radicalement différentes.…”

No More Mrs. Nice Gay

“…Held's conceptual claim that social cooperation is a prerequisite for treating one another as worthy of respect or as rights‐bearers can be turned on its head. It may be, as Claudia Card said in 1990, “In a pluralistic society with a history of racism, respect can be more basic than caring in that it is a precondition of the welcomeness of certain caring relationships” (Card 1990, 105). This claim is just as good today when we substitute “hostility toward gay people” for “racism.”…”