Summaries 8,9,10

Chapter 8

Feminist Ethics and the Ethics of Care

Feminist Ethics –1

• An alternative way of looking at the concepts and concerns of the moral life
• An approach focused on women’s interests and experiences and devoted to promoting the moral equality of men and women
• A response to theories of ethics that have emphasized those characteristics believed to be distinctive to men and ignored or rejected ways of thinking and feeling believed to be distinctive of women

Feminist Ethics –2

• An approach that takes into account moral issues that are more likely to arise from the experiences of women

Traditional moral philosophy’s devaluation of the domestic realm made it impossible to raise questions about the domestic division of labor or domestic abuse.

General Traits of Feminist Ethics –1

An emphasis on personal relationships

• Traditional moral theories have been mostly concerned with “public life,” the realm in which unrelated individuals try to figure out how to behave toward one another.
• Feminist ethics narrows down the area of moral concern to the interconnected and familiar small group—to the people with whom we have close personal relationships.

General Traits of Feminist Ethics –2

Differing views on moral principles

• Some feminist philosophers resist the temptation to map out moral actions according to moral principles.
• They argue that such principles are too general to be useful in the complicated arena of the domestic, social, and personal.

General Traits of Feminist Ethics –3

Contrasting attitudes toward impartiality

• Impartiality says that from the moral point of view, all persons are considered equal and should be treated accordingly; but in the domestic sphere, we are anything but impartial.
• Some feminists make our moral duties to the people we care about central to their moral outlook.

General Traits of Feminist Ethics –4

A higher regard for emotions

• Feminist philosophers have greater respect for the emotional side of our lives than many non-feminist ethicists do.

General Traits of Feminist Ethics –5

An emphasis on the nonideal

• Feminist ethicists take issue with the tendency of traditional moral theories to assume an idealized view of human beings.

Many feminist ethicists acknowledge that real life is messy and involves humans who are often irrational, and they appreciate the value of these nonidealaspects to life.

The Ethics of Care –1

• Emphasizes close personal relationships and moral virtues such as compassion, faithfulness, kindness, love, and sympathy
• Contrasts with traditional moral theories preoccupied with principles and legalistic reasoning

The Ethics of Care –2

• Originates from the contrast between:
  • Traditionally male “ethic of justice”
  • Traditionally female “ethic of care”
  • The argument is that both justice and care, which are not inherently linked to gender, are needed.

  The Ethics of Care –3

  • An ethic of care concerns itself with the experiences of being dependent and the morality of relating to dependents.
  • A morality built on the image of the independent, autonomous, rational individual often overlooks the extensive human experience of dependence.

  Credits

  This concludes the PowerPoint slide set for Chapter 8

  Doing Ethics: Moral Reasoning and Contemporary Issues

  Fifth Edition (2019) by Lewis Vaughn.