Feminists Doing Ethics (Feminist Constructions) by Peggy DesAutels

Author:Peggy DesAutels
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9780742579965
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Published: 2001-09-10T04:00:00+00:00

CONCLUSION: FEMINIST VIRTUE ETHICS

I conclude with some speculations about the possibility of a feminist virtue theory. Thus far I have examined care ethics in relation to virtue ethics. I have shown how both care ethics in its “feminine” form and virtues as conceptualized by Kant reinforce the stereotypically feminine view of women as sympathetic and benevolent nurturers. While holding women up as moral paragons is better than vilifying us, it relegates women to the private sphere and saddles us with the role of caretaker. Nonetheless, the philosophical work on care ethics contributes significantly to moral theory. In closing, I want to suggest three different ways that care can be useful to feminists. First, following Tronto, care can be applied to politics and perhaps lead to considerations of justice. Second, as I have shown, understanding care within a virtue ethics framework shores it up against some criticisms, thus strengthening care ethics as a moral theory. Finally, I suggest that care should be fostered as a feminist virtue.

Understood in its broadest sense care applies not just to particular persons but, as Tronto suggests, to the political realm as well. Why should care be limited to particular individuals? Some ecofeminists who expand on Gilligan’s work argue that care should extend to include not just individual persons but also animals and even inanimate natural objects, such as rocks.41 If we see care as a practice, as Tronto suggests, and if it is a practice directed toward maintaining, continuing, and repairing our world, including bodies, selves, and environment, then the scope of our care is not limited to individual persons or even groups of persons. Care can be directed toward politics and principles that make the world a better place.42

A politicized care such as Tronto suggests may even promote concern for justice. Care for others can lead to a concern for justice. Caring for particular others and understanding their context can make one keenly aware of systemic injustice. For example, when one cares for someone who is terminally ill, it may become clear that the quality of health care available varies according to socioeconomic status. When care reaches its fullest expression, it must take into account the social circumstances that perpetuate any type of oppression, subordination, or domination.43

By placing care within a virtue ethics framework, my aim has been to disassociate it with women, clarify its possible relationships to justice, and pay heed to the importance of social and political context for any ethics. Indeed, one of the hallmarks of feminist ethics is that it is inseparable from social and political context. Understanding care within the context of virtue ethics demands that we pay attention to social and political conditions. Yet virtue ethics needs to be supplemented by a feminist politics and a conception of human flourishing that promotes equality. Viewing care in the framework of virtue theory may allow us to see both care and justice as social capacities that need to be sustained along with normative ideals,44 as human capacities they need to be developed and sustained by social institutions that support them.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.