Cavarero’s ethic of inclination responds to a postural geometric imaginary in the philosophical tradition that is irrefutably gendered. Opening with a reflection on the character of Irina in Italo Calvino’s ‘If, on a winter’s night, a traveller’ she draws out the inclined, sinuous, curving figures of the female common to literary and philosophical texts, and contrasts them to the straight, upright, correct and erect, male figure. Tracing these stereotypes back to Ancient Greek etymology, she charts its progress through the work of Plato, Kant, and Proudhon. From the devalued imagery of the female body as maternal, Cavarero begins her subversion of the philosophical tradition. Following Arendt’s valorisation of the natal scene, Cavarero emphasises the distinctive role of the inclined mother as care giver. This image of inclined motherhood is to form the basis then, of Cavarero’s ethic of inclination—an altruistic ethic that upends the ‘imagined wholeness’ of the dominant liberal model of the independent, self-sufficient male, individual.
Understanding the occupational identity of care-givers for people with mental health problems
