The Ethics of Care and Empathy

The Ethics of Care and Empathy. By M. Slote. ROUTLEDGE, ZOOJ. XIV + I33 PP. £ PAPER. Most moral philosophers who have recently expressed.
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• 2008.03.05
• The Ethics of Care and Empathy by Michael Slote
• The Ethics of Care and Empathy
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In Chapter 4, "Autonomy and Empathy," Slote faces two objections to care ethics: Slote answers these objections by saying that autonomy roughly understood as making and acting on one's decisions is part of a person's good; so if that person say, one's child is the object of one's care, one cares about promoting and respecting her autonomy. By affirming autonomy as part of someone's good, Slote is also enabled to meet the criticism sometimes lodged by feminists against care ethics, that it promotes selflessness and self-sacrifice at the expense of autonomy.

In Chapter 5, "Care Ethics versus Liberalism," Slote reiterates his earlier argument that care ethics differs from liberalism in not giving as much rein to free speech, for example, in the form of hate speech, and that we should prefer the care approach to the liberal one. He also provides an extended discussion of care and gender. He argues that women are, on the average, more likely to possess the virtue of care than men, although the main reason for this is likely to be socialization. However, Slote says it is likely that even if men and women were equally socialized to be caring and empathetic, there might well be a physiological difference related to testosterone that favors women in the development of empathy.

Slote embraces, then, the likelihood that on the average women are morally superior to men, if care is the basis of morality.

He tries to make this conclusion palatable to men by suggesting that men are not fully responsible for this moral inferiority, since it has a biological basis beyond their control. This discussion raises a problem for Slote.

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First, if men and women have differing empathy potentialities, it might seem to follow that the two genders should be thought of as having different standards for "fully developed empathy," or that Slote will have to choose one of the genders as the human standard and this may seem to be arbitrary. This "gender relativity" raises the suspicion that there are also culturally significant differences in norms of empathy development, which would raise similar problems. In Chapter 5, Slote criticizes what he sees as an extreme or distorted conception of autonomy, one articulated by Nussbaum involving taking a critical stance toward all of one's beliefs and emotional attachments scrutiny precedes attachments, in his characterization of the view in question.

His rejection of this notion places Slote's own view closer to the "relational" one developed by feminists, and Slote embraces that result.

In Chapter 6, "Social Justice," Slote argues that we can speak of institutions and laws as "caring" or exhibiting empathy, or not, and thus can use the same criterion as in the individual case for their moral assessment. He argues that empathy can account for social injustice in that elites who fail to accord political rights are motivated by greed and selfishness.

The stronger view is certainly incorrect, except perhaps regarding the issue of obligations to distant others, where philosophers have failed to forge any consensus on the existence and character of such obligations. It is surely implausible to say that care for the exploited or unjustly disadvantaged is the same as, or explains, the moral intuition that such-and-such a situation constitutes injustice.

Care is simply distinct from injustice. But if so, the weaker thesis is also questionable. What we are prompted to do by justice or respect for rights is unlikely to align precisely with what care prompts even when both are restricted to what is morally right. Let me raise one final concern. Slote's focus on care as a motive to action to improve the other's situation, to be used as a criterion for right action, omits some important aspects of the value of care as a human sentiment.

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We value other people's care for us not only because it leads them to help us when we are in need, but also for its own sake, and even when the other is not able to do anything for us in the way of action. Just knowing that the other cares can be important to us, a point emphasized in Noddings's Caring. Slote rightly distinguishes two strands in care theory, that he also rightly claims are often insufficiently distinguished -- a concern with care as a sentiment, and a concern with promoting caring relationships.

There is a distinction here, but it is not as sharp as Slote implies. The Ethics of Big Data: Current and Foreseeable Issues in Biomedical Contexts. The Desired Moral Attitude of the Physician: Resolving Disagreement Through Mutual Respect. Jonas Olson - - Analysis 69 1: Robert White - - Ethical Perspectives 16 4: Supererogation in an Ethics of Care.

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Roberts - - Philosophia 42 3: Michael Slote - - Philosophia 42 3: Care Ethics and Virtue Ethics. Raja Halwani - - Hypatia 18 3: Ethics of Care and Hiv: A Case for Rural Women in India.

PHILOSOPHY - Political: Government and Marriage (Just Care) [HD]

Chhanda Chakraborti - - Developing World Bioethics 6 2: Not as revolutionary or exciting as billed is it wrong to suspect that Carol Gilligan's glowing p The main argument of the book is that care ethics is a viable approach to the political as well as the personal, and that a moral outlook rooted in care ethics cannot be integrated with the masculinist principle of justice, because the latter necessitates a lack of empathy. Not as revolutionary or exciting as billed is it wrong to suspect that Carol Gilligan's glowing praise might be because he endorses her ideas whole heartedly without ever really challenging or modifying them?

I found the stuff on the posited gender split between care and justice particularly feeble and something Gilligan deals with much more elegantly , perhaps because Slote never acknowledges or interrogates his own place in this supposed split, as a passionate male advocate for care. Aug 19, Lucas rated it liked it Shelves: Slote's intervention is to point to empathy as a way of resolving or unifying a number of threads within the ethics of care, and consequently it addresses both general and specific issues raised by care ethics in ways that will also be important and useful for people looking from the outside in, as it were.

I confess that I won't be abandoning my own preference for virtue ethics, but I nonetheless found the experiment interesting. His test cases, focusing on our moral intuitions, I found persuas Slote's intervention is to point to empathy as a way of resolving or unifying a number of threads within the ethics of care, and consequently it addresses both general and specific issues raised by care ethics in ways that will also be important and useful for people looking from the outside in, as it were.

His test cases, focusing on our moral intuitions, I found persuasive, even if I did not share the intution in every case or where I may have shared the intuition, I felt that relevant objections could be made. As ever, Slote writes in a very readable style, willing to engage closely with arguments without allowing the technicalities get in the way. Aug 19, Hall's Bookshop rated it liked it Shelves: Philipp Schwind rated it it was ok Jun 20, Stephen rated it really liked it Mar 22, Lilith Acadia rated it really liked it Jul 19, Carissa rated it it was ok Sep 15, Allison Ebner rated it it was amazing Mar 06, Hilde rated it liked it Aug 30, Jolanda rated it really liked it Jan 28, Matthew Trevino rated it liked it Jun 30, Alexander rated it liked it Feb 20, Devin rated it it was ok Jun 17, Paul rated it really liked it May 28, Khalil rated it really liked it Jun 14, Emily rated it it was ok Apr 05, Inna marked it as to-read Jan 22, Joy Simmons marked it as to-read Sep 29, Frank Spencer marked it as to-read Apr 07, Andy Baker is currently reading it May 29, Tristan marked it as to-read Feb 13, Rosie marked it as to-read May 03, Krys Honsbeek marked it as to-read Oct 20, Mirthe marked it as to-read Jan 17, Elizabeth Huitt marked it as to-read Feb 19,