On the Priority of Relational Ontology: The Complementarity of Heidegger's Being-With and Ethics of Care

Ethics of care is a relatively new approach to morality, first developed as a feminist ethical theory in the 1980s by Carol Gilligan, Sara Ruddick, and Nel Noddings. It is based on the experience and responsibility of providing care and is distinct from other popular moral philosophies including Kantian moral theory, utilitarianism, or virtue ethics, although it has some similarities to virtue ethics. Founded on a relational ontology, it offers a deeply incisive critique of liberal individualism through ethical reflection. It is also committed to a particularism which recognises the importance of addressing moral problems in the context of lived experience. In this article, after an analysis of the foundational perspectives of care ethics, it will be contended that its central tenets tie in with contemporary approaches in theology, particularly those expressed in the writings of St John Paul II and Benedict XVI. Furthermore, it will be suggested that the anthropological and moral insights of these theologians can offer the ethics of care a deeper ontological and epistemological grounding, hence strengthening its viability and existential appeal.

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Harm in the absence of care: Towards a medical ethics that cares

Nursing Ethics ◽

10.1177/0969733010392304 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 18 (2) ◽

pp. 174-183 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Elin Martinsen

Keyword(s):

Medical Ethics ◽

Medical Practice ◽

Human Life ◽

Empirical Studies ◽

Ethics Of Care ◽

Relational Ontology ◽

Carol Gilligan ◽

Contemporary Medicine

The aim of this article is to investigate the concept of care in contemporary medical practice and medical ethics. Although care has been hailed throughout the centuries as a crucial ideal in medical practice and as an honourable virtue to be observed in codes of medical ethics, I argue that contemporary medicine and medical ethics suffer from the lack of a theoretically sustainable concept of care and then discuss possible reasons that may help to explain this absence. I draw on the empirical studies of Carol Gilligan on care and connectedness as ontologically situated realities in human life. Based on a philosophical elaboration of her findings on the ethics of care emphasizing relationality, I try to show how the notion of ‘relational ontology’ originating from this stream of thought may be of help in developing a medical ethics that acknowledges care as a perspective to be observed in all interactions between physicians and patients.

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ethics of caring in the child-friendly projects: new challenges

childhood & philosophy ◽

10.12957/childphilo.2020.49411 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 16 (36) ◽

pp. 01-17

Author(s):

Tahereh Javidi kalatehjafarabadi

Keyword(s):

Qualitative Evaluation ◽

Ethics Of Care ◽

Moral Sentiment ◽

Relational Ontology ◽

Care Theory ◽

New Challenges ◽

Child Friendly ◽

Ethics Of Caring ◽

Core Characteristics ◽

Theory Of Caring

This paper aims to consider the implications of Noddings’ ethics of care theory for child-friendly projects and their underlying philosophical assumptions. It is explained that this theory with its emphasis on the children’s needs and rights and, more importantly, the emphasis on the care relation and care encounter indicates how Noddings’ main concepts and ideas could be taken into consideration in exploring the challenges of implementing child-friendly projects. Therefore, the main concepts of ethics of care theory including need and right, empathy and sympathy, receptive and projective, care about and cared-for, expressed and inferred needs were investigated by considering their adaptation with the origin and the destination of child-friendly projects. Accordingly, a series of questions was set out to illustrate the theoretical challenges that may have been reflected in implementing the child-friendly project. These questions were also categorized in light of three core characteristics of Noddings’ theory of caring: 1) relational ontology; which refers to the relational nature of children life, 2) attention with concern; which refers to the moral sentiment/non-rational life of children and 3) particularism; which refers to the particularity of children’s lives. As individuals/researchers and as members of the child-friendly community we can focus on these questions to understand the challenges of the project and provide a potential for its qualitative evaluation.

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The Ethics of Care and the Radical Potential of Fathers ‘Home Alone on Leave’: Care as Practice, Relational Ontology, and Social Justice

Comparative Perspectives on Work-Life Balance and Gender Equality - Life Course Research and Social Policies ◽

10.1007/978-3-319-42970-0_2 ◽

2016 ◽

pp. 11-28 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Andrea Doucet

Keyword(s):

Social Justice ◽

Ethics Of Care ◽

Relational Ontology

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Notes on Loving a Mourner (with Roland Barthes and Others)

Paragraph ◽

10.3366/para.2017.0226 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 40 (2) ◽

pp. 211-227

Author(s):

Matt Phillips

Keyword(s):

Sigmund Freud ◽

Ethics Of Care ◽

Roland Barthes ◽

Melanie Klein ◽

Personal Observation ◽

Late Work ◽

Point Of Departure

This essay examines the place of love in grief, staging a relation between a mourner and her lover. Taking as its point of departure Freud's observation that mourning leads to a ‘loss of the capacity to love’, it considers the effects bereavement might have on the bereaved's relations with those that love them, and the possibilities, pitfalls and ethics of care in such a context. This is explored largely through a reading of Roland Barthes's late work (both as a writer of grief and a theorist of love), as well as ideas drawn from Sigmund Freud, Melanie Klein, Sara Ahmed, Hamlet and personal observation. Love and care are thought through alongside notions of ‘tact’, ‘benevolence’ and ‘parrying against reduction’ in late Barthes.

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