Ethics of care

Notes

Claim

Ethics of care is a moral view that takes into consideration relationships and social obligations and connection between humans and the environment we live.

Explanation

Originated from the difference in moral reasoning between men and women. Men tended to stick to logical rational reasoning, either based on rules Deontology treats morality as duties and rights that transcend consequences or mathematical calculations Maximizing pleasure and minimizing suffering defines moral action, both trying to derive a one true answer for each moral dilemma.

Humans are not detached individual moral agents who decide in a vacuum as presented in moral dilemmas such as the trolly problem. Humans make moral decisions in real life, and are affected and affecting real people. Same as the dilemma changes when suddenly you are the one who has to push the person, or see those people die, would you really be able to? We are our connections, our family, society, friends, thinking of a moral agent as an individual first is a mistake.

Morality is intertwined with our emotions as humans, to detach from them or from your relations is to abandon humanity.

Why it matters

Summary:

1. Moral dilemmas are judged in "real life cases" based on how it affects our relations with our community, others, environment, etc..., issues of responsibility, empathy and compassion are intertwined.
2. There is no "one true answer" to each case
3. To be moral is to consider our emotions

How to care:

1. Notice you need to help (attentive)
2. Want to help (responsibility)
3. Can help (competence)
4. Help by their preferences (responsive)
5. Help inclusivity (plurality)

Examples

Kids were tested on a moral dilemma as follows: your wife is sick and you don't have money for the medicine, is it justified to steal it? Men usually sticked to ultimatums, such as:

1. stealing is always wrong, I wont steal
2. human life is more valuable than the price of the medicine/harm to the vendor, it is justified to steal Women however gave answers like:
3. have we tried reasoning with the vendor?
4. what my wife would think of me if I steal it?
5. what good will it bring if I steal the medicine, only to be put in prison while she is better?

Supporters

Opposers

Morality is both rational and emotional warns that empathy alone is an unreliable guide — it reacts to whoever's suffering is most visible, not necessarily whoever needs the help most, which can pull us away from the very relationships and context we're trying to honor.

Effective altruists push this further. Moral impartiality values all lives equally argues a stranger's life counts exactly as much as a loved one's, so building morality around our web of relationships just rationalizes favoring the people we happen to know. Moral duty can extend beyond what we feel or who we know makes the same point from Peter Singer's angle: we're on the hook to help people we'll never meet and feel nothing for, something a relationship-first ethic struggles to account for.

Open questions

If morality is rooted in relationships, does that justify giving less weight to strangers we have no connection to — and if so, how is that different from plain favoritism?

Overview