Care Ethics and Obligations to Future Generations

Hypatia ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 527-545
Author(s):  
Thomas Randall
Keyword(s):  
Care Ethics ◽  
Relational Structure ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
Care Ethic ◽  
Mutual Advantage ◽  
Theories Of Justice ◽  
Future Care ◽  
Caring Relations ◽  
Intergenerational Ethics

A dominant area of inquiry within intergenerational ethics concerns how goods (and bads) ought to be justly distributed between noncontemporaries. Contractualist theories of justice that have broached these discussions have often centered on the concepts of mutual advantage and (indirect) reciprocal cooperation between rational, self‐interested beings. However, another prominent reason that many in the present feel that they have obligations toward future generations is not due to self‐interested reciprocity, but simply because they care about what happens to them. Care ethics promises to be conceptually well‐suited for articulating this latter reason: given that future generations are in a perpetual condition of dependency on present‐day people's actions, this is precisely the kind of relational structure that care theorists should be interested in morally evaluating. Unfortunately, the care literature has been largely silent on intergenerational ethics. This article aims to advance this literature, offering the blueprints of what a care ethic concerning future generations—a “future care ethic”—should look like. The resultant ethic defends a sufficientarian theory of obligation: people in the present ought to ensure the conditions needed to encourage and sustain a world that enables good caring relations to flourish.

Care Ethics: A Concept in Search of a Framework

1995 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erich H. Loewy
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Ethical Decision ◽  
Ethical Decision Making ◽  
Care Ethics ◽  
Healthcare Setting ◽  
The Other ◽  
Care Ethic ◽  
The Relationship

In this paper, I want to try to put what has been termed the “care ethics” into a different perspective. While I will discuss primarily the use of that ethic or that term as it applies to the healthcare setting in general and to the deliberation of consultants or the function of committees more specifically, what I have to say is meant to be applicable to the problem of using a notion like “caring” as a fundamental precept in ethical decision making. I will set out to examine the relationship between theoretical ethics, justice-based reasoning, and care-based reasoning and conclude by suggesting not only that all are part of a defensible solution when adjudicating individual cases, but that these three are linked and can, in fact, be mutually corrective. I will claim that using what has been called “the care ethic” alone is grossly insufficient for solving individual problems and that the term can (especially when used without a disciplined framework) be extremely dangerous. I will readily admit that while blindly using an approach based solely on theoretically derived principles is perhaps somewhat less dangerous, it is bound to be sterile, unsatisfying, and perhaps even cruel in individual situations. Care ethics, as I understand the concept, is basically a non- or truly an anti-intellectual kind of ethic in that it tries not only to value feeling over thought in deliberating problems of ethics, but indeed, would almost entirely substitute feeling for thought. Feeling when used to underwrite undisciplined and intuitive action without theory has no head and, therefore, no plan and no direction; theory eventuating in sterile rules and eventually resulting in action heedlessly based on such rules lacks humanity and heart. Neither one nor the other is complete in itself. There is no reason why we necessarily should be limited to choosing between these two extremes.

Confucianism and Intergenerational Ethics

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marion Hourdequin ◽  
David B. Wong
Keyword(s):  
Point Of View ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
Social Web ◽  
Moral Exemplars ◽  
Central Values ◽  
Relational Perspective ◽  
Parents And Children ◽  
The World ◽  
Intergenerational Ethics ◽  
Ethical Relations

This chapter explains how early Confucianism can ground a distinctly relational perspective on intergenerational ethics. The Analects of Confucius foregrounds intergenerational relations by rooting ethics in relationships between parents and children and presenting as moral exemplars sage-kings from generations ago. From a Confucian point of view, persons are understood as persons-in-relation, embedded in networks of connection across space and time. Self-cultivation thus involves taking one’s place in a community where one’s own identity and welfare are deeply bound to those of others. In this view, gratitude and reciprocity emerge as central values. A Confucian understanding of gratitude and reciprocity involves not only dyadic relations but broader connections within a temporally extended social web. Thus, Confucian reciprocity might involve honoring one’s parents by nurturing one’s own children in turn or expressing gratitude for what past generations have provided by ensuring that future generations can flourish. Genuine ethical relations between current and future generations reflect care and concern for ongoing human communities; for the triad of heaven, earth, and humanity; and for realization of the Dao in the world.

Justice Between Coexisting Generations

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juliana Bidadanure
Keyword(s):  
Distributive Justice ◽  
Natural Resources ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Baby Boomers ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
Temporal Distance ◽  
Age Group ◽  
Distribution Of Resources ◽  
Intergenerational Ethics

The field of intergenerational ethics has been largely centered on the question of what we owe those who are temporally distant. This interest was prompted by the growing awareness that many natural resources were nonrenewable and that future generations risked being disadvantaged or harmed in a variety of central respects. This understandable emphasis on temporal distance should, however, not lead one to disregard matters of justice between contemporary generations (between baby boomers and millennials, for instance) as straightforward or uninteresting. Inequalities between young and old crystallize significant and complex political and economic tensions in the sphere of employment, pensions, healthcare, housing, and political representation. This chapter introduces and responds to significant philosophical puzzles about the fair distribution of resources between individuals at different stages of their lives. The author provides a conceptual framework to approach matters of both age group and birth cohort justice and looks at how one of the chief values of distributive justice—equality—plays out in the field of justice between coexisting generations.

Future Generations in Environmental Ethics

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Nolt
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Ethics ◽  
Moral Status ◽  
Human Population ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
Temporal Perspective ◽  
Future People ◽  
Intergenerational Ethics

Intergenerational ethics is the study of our responsibilities to future individuals—individuals (human or not) who are not now alive but will be. The term “future” characterizes, not the kind of a thing, but rather the temporal perspective from which it is being described. Future people, as such, therefore differ from us neither intrinsically nor in moral status. Our responsibilities to them are best understood by attempts to see things from their perspective, not from ours. Though intergenerational ethics takes various forms, the credible forms in conjunction with known facts yield two great practical conclusions: we must reduce human population, and we must keep most fossil fuels in the ground. The demandingness of these conclusions is no objection against them, but rather an accurate measure of the moral burdens of our godlike knowledge and power.

Political Institutions and Intergenerational Ethics

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anja Karnein
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Climate Change Mitigation ◽  
The Other ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
The Face ◽  
Intergenerational Ethics ◽  
Change Mitigation

This chapter reviews two prominent debates about institutions and intergenerational ethics, one held at the time of the founding of America and the other held today in the context of climate change. These two debates have more in common than may, at first, appear. On the face of it, the historical debate was about whether institutions, specifically the constitution, may bind future generations or whether the latter should be left maximally unencumbered. By contrast, proponents of climate change mitigation today would like institutions to be more inclusive of future generations’ interests. But, this chapter suggests, the new debate ought to be understood along the same lines as the old one, namely as being about avoiding disenfranchisement, that is, about preventing a situation in which previous generations determine too much of the context of future generations’ choices.

scholarly journals Beyond Just Justice - Creating Space for a Future-Care Ethic

2016 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 223-256 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Makoff ◽  
Rupert Read
Keyword(s):  
Care Ethic ◽  
Future Care

scholarly journals Trabajo de cuidado de la vejez en una sociedad en envejecimiento

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Javier A. Pineda Duque
Keyword(s):  
Nonprofit Organizations ◽  
Care Ethics ◽  
Care Work ◽  
Care Ethic ◽  
Old People ◽  
Labor Conditions ◽  
Care Workers ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Sociedad Civil ◽  
Las Mujeres

Resumen: Este artículo se propone explorar el contextodel envejecimiento de la población en Bogotá, asícomo el trabajo de cuidado y las distintas condicioneslaborales que se ofrecen a las cuidadoras en las casasu hogares gerontológicos de carácter privado, tantodesde el mercado, con la aparición de nuevas entidadescon ánimo de lucro, como desde la sociedad civil, apartir de iniciativas de organizaciones sin ánimo delucro. Se reconoce la alta feminización del trabajode cuidado, como también del envejecimiento (mayoresperanza de vida para las mujeres). Se realizaronentrevistas en seis establecimientos, casas u hogaresgerontológicos de carácter privado, a trabajadorasremuneradas y no, administradores y ancianos, de lascuales se seleccionaron y procesaron doce entrevistassemi-estructuradas a trabajadoras remuneradas decuidado. Las experiencias de las mujeres cuidadoras dela vejez muestran las posibilidades de la humanizacióndel cuidado y de las relaciones sociales, en laconstrucción de una ética de cuidado que tiene bases enla transformación de las identidades de las cuidadoras.En general las trabajadoras han logrado, a través dela creación de sistemas de significados independientes,revalorar y privilegiar lazos emocionales con losresidentes, construyendo la dignidad en el trabajo sobrelos cimientos de los apegos emocionales.Palabras clave: trabajo de cuidado, vejez, ética decuidado, dependenciaCare Work for Old People in an Aging SocietyAbstract: This paper aims at exploring aging contextsfor the population of Bogotá as well as care work andthe different labor conditions for caretakers in privategeriatric homes, from the viewpoint of the market, as newfor profit entities appear, and from the viewpoint of civilsociety, represented by nonprofit organizations. Thereis a high feminization of care work, and of aging (dueto women’s higher life expectancies). Interviews werecarried out in six institutions, homes or assisted livingfacilities, to paid workers and volunteers, administratorsand old people, of which 12 semi-structured interviewsof paid care workers were selected and processed.The experiences of these female care workers showthe possibilities of humanization of care and socialrelations, in the construction of a care ethic based on thetransformation of the workers identities. In general theworkers have achieved through the creation of systemsof meaning, to revalue and privilege emotional ties withthe residents, building dignity at work on the grounds ofemotional attachments.Key words: care work, old people, care ethics, dependence

The Unhappy Marriage of Care Ethics and Virtue Ethics

Hypatia ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 21-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maureen Sander-Staudt
Keyword(s):  
Virtue Ethics ◽  
Virtue Ethic ◽  
Care Ethics ◽  
Care Ethic

The proposal that care ethic(s) (CE) be subsumed under the framework of virtue ethic(s) (VE) is both promising and problematic for feminists. Although some attempts to construe care as a virtue are more commendable than others, they cannot duplicate a freestanding feminist CE. Sander-Staudt recommends a model of theoretical collaboration between VE and CE that retains their comprehensiveness, allows CE to enhance VE as well as be enhanced by it, and leaves CE open to other collaborations.

Fürsorge als Prinzip?

2003 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 6-20
Author(s):  
Hans-Uirich Dallmann
Keyword(s):  
Nursing Care ◽  
Ethic Of Care ◽  
Golden Rule ◽  
Care Ethics ◽  
Nursing Ethics ◽  
Long Time ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Caring Relations ◽  
Justice And Care

Abstract For a long time the foundations of an Ethic of Nursing have been formulated in terms of Christian charity. The article discusses this concept by examining the roots of modern Nursing in the Kaiserswerther Diakonie. This Christian work -ethic is criticised by modern nursing ethics. lnstead of an Ethic of Charity an Ethic of Care is promoted by the common representatives of a modern ethics of nursing. But such as an Ethic of Christian Charity an Ethic of Care has to deal with those problems: the naturalizing of femininity, the asymmetry of persans in caring relations, the relation between justice and care, the relation between caring and nursing. Care ethics following Gilligan and her recipients are not able to solve these problems in a satisfactory way. Therefore it could be useful to reformulate the Christian notion of charity. It can be demonstrated that Agape is not combined with conceptions of subservience and self-denial. The difference between Eros as a perverted selfishness and Agape as selfless virtue cannot be held any langer. Agape tends to reciprocity which has its model in the Golden Rule. In addition Agape is no sentiment, but related to action -Agape is practiced justice.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document