Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-zzh7m Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-27T15:51:23.678Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Rethinking Care Theory: The Practice of Caring and the Obligation to Care

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2020

Daniel Engster
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Care theorists have made significant gains over the past twenty-five years in establishing caring as a viable moral and political concept. Nonetheless, the concept of caring remains underdeveloped as a basis for a moral and political philosophy, and there is no fully developed account of our moral obligation to care. This article advances thinking about caring by developing a definition of caring and a theory of obligation to care sufficient to ground a general moral and political philosophy.

Type
Research Article
Information
Hypatia , Volume 20 , Issue 3 , Summer 2005 , pp. 50 - 74
Copyright
Copyright © 2005 by Hypatia, Inc.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Baier, Annette. 1997. The commons of the mind. Chicago: Open Court.Google Scholar
Baier, Annette. 1994. Moral prejudices: Essays on ethics. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Baier, Annette. 1985. Postures of the mind: Essays on mind and morals. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Beyleveld, Deryck. 1991. The dialectical necessity of morality: An analysis and defense of Alan Gewirth's argument to the principle of generic consistency. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Bhavnagri, Navaz Peshotan, and Gonzalez‐Mena, Janet. 1997. The cultural context of infant caregiving. Childhood Education 74 (Fall): 2–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blum, Lawrence. 1994. Moral perception and particularity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bond, E. J. 1980. Gewirth on reason and morality. Metaphilosophy 11 (1): 36–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bowlby, John. 1973. Attachment and loss. Vol. 2, Separation: Anxiety and anger. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Bowlby, John. 1969. Attachment and loss. Vol. 1, Attachment. London: Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psychoanalysis.Google Scholar
Bubeck, Diemut. 1995. Care, gender, and justice. Oxford: Clarendon Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clement, Grace. 1996. Care, autonomy, and justice. Boulder: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Code, Lorraine. 1987a. Epistemic responsibility. Hanover, N. H.: University Press of New England.Google Scholar
Code, Lorraine. 1987b. Second persons. In Science, morality and feminist theory: Supplementary volume of the Canadian Journal of Philosophy, ed. Hanen, Marsha and Nielsen, Kai. Calgary: University of Calgary Press.Google Scholar
Collins, Patricia Hill. 2000. Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Dyck, Arthur. 1994. Rethinking rights and responsibilities: The moral bonds of community. Cleveland: The Pilgrim Press.Google Scholar
Engster, Daniel. 2004. Care ethics and natural law theory: Toward an institutional political theory of caring. The Journal of Politics 66, no. 1 (February): 113–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Engster, Daniel. 2001. Mary Wollstonecraft's nurturing liberalism: Between an ethic of justice and care. The American Political Science Review 95 (September): 577–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fineman, Martha. 2004. The autonomy myth: A theory of dependency. New York: The New Press.Google Scholar
Fineman, Martha. 1995. The neutered mother, the sexual family and other twentieth century tragedies. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Finnis, John. 1980. Natural law and natural rights. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Fisher, Berenice, and Tronto, Joan. 1990. Toward a feminist theory of care. In Circles of care: Work and identity in women's lives, ed. Abel, Emily and Nelson, Margaret. Albany: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Folbre, Nancy. 2001. The invisible heart: Economics and family values. New York: The New Press.Google Scholar
Fraser, Nancy, and Honneth, Axel. 2003. Redistribution or recognition? A political‐philosophical exchange. New York: Verso.Google Scholar
Friedman, Marilyn. 1993. What are friends for? Feminist perspectives on personal relationships and moral theory. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Gewirth, Alan. 1996. The community of rights. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Gewirth, Alan. 1978. Reason and morality. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Gilligan, Carol. 1982. In a different voice. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Goldberg, Susan. 1977. Infant development and mother‐infant interaction in urban Zambia. In Culture and infancy: Variations in the human experience, ed. Herbert Liederman, P., Tulkin, Steven, and Rosenfeld, Anne. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Goodin, Robert. 1995. Utilitarianism as a public philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goodin, Robert. 1985. Protecting the vulnerable: A reanalysis of our social responsibilities. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Habermas, Jürgen. 1990. Moral consciousness and communicative action. Trans. Lenhardt, Christian and Weber Nicholsen, Shierry. Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Habermas, Jürgen. 1984. The theory of communicative action. Vol. 1, Reason and the rationalization of society. Trans. McCarthy, Thomas. Boston: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Halwani, Raja. 2003. Care ethics and virtue ethics. Hypatia 18 (3): 161–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Held, Virginia. 1993. Feminist morality: Transforming culture, society and politics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Hirschmann, Nancy. 1992. Rethinking obligation: A feminist method for political theory. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Hrdy, Sarah Blaffer. 1999. Mother nature: A history of mothers, infants, and natural selection. New York: Pantheon Books.Google Scholar
Kittay, Eva Feder. 2001. A feminist public ethic of care meets the new communitarian family policy. Ethics 111 (April): 523–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kittay, Eva Feder. 1999. Love's labor: Essays on women, equality, and dependency. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Klosko, George. 1992. The principle of fairness and political obligation. Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield.Google Scholar
Konner, Melvin. 1977. Infancy among the Kalahari Desert San. In Culture and infancy: Variations in the Human Experience, ed. Herbert Liederman, P., Tulkin, Steven, and Rosenfeld, Anne. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Levine, Robert. 1977. Child rearing as cultural adaptation. In Culture and infancy: Variations in the human experience, ed. Herbert Liederman, P., Tulkin, Steven, and Rosenfeld, Anne. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Lewis, Michael, and Ban, Peggy. 1977. Variance and invariance in the mother‐infant interaction: A cross‐cultural study. In Culture and infancy: Variations in the human experience, ed. Herbert Liederman, P., Tulkin, Steven, and Rosenfeld, Anne. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Meehan, Johanna. 2000. Feminism and Habermas' discourse ethics. Philosophy and Social Criticism 26 (3): 39–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Noddings, Nel. 2002. Starting at home: Caring and social policy. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Noddings, Nel. 1984. Caring: A feminine approach to ethics and moral education. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Nussbaum, Martha. 2000. Women and human development: The capabilities approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Okin, Susan. 2003. Poverty, well‐being, and gender: What counts, who's heard? Philosophy and Public Affairs 31, no. 3 (Summer): 280–316.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prescott, James. 1990. Affectional bonding for the prevention of violent behavior: Neurobiological, psychological and religious/spiritual determinants. In Violent behavior, ed. Hertzberg, Leonard, Ostrum, Gene, and Roberts Field, Joan. Vol. 1, Assessment and intervention. Great Neck, New York: PMA Publishing.Google Scholar
Rawls, John. 19711999. A theory of justice. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Ruddick, Sara. 1989. Maternal politics: Toward a politics of peace. Boston: Beacon.Google Scholar
Sambasivan, Umadevi. 2001. Development, freedom and care: The case of India. In Care work: The quest for security, ed. Daly, Mary. Geneva: International Labour Office.Google Scholar
Schwarzenbach, Sibyl. 1996. On civic friendship. Ethics 107 (October): 97–128.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schwarzenbach, Sibyl. 1987. Rawls and ownership: The forgotten category of reproductive labor. In Science, morality and feminist theory. Supplementary volume of the Canadian Journal of Philosophy, ed. Hanen, Marsha and Nielsen, Kai. Calgary: University of Calgary Press.Google Scholar
Simmons, A. John. 1979. Moral principles and political obligations. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Slote, Michael. 2001. Morals from motives. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Starr, Raymond Jr., MacLean, Darla, and Keating, Daniel. 1991. Life‐span developmental outcomes of child maltreatment. In The effects of child abuse and neglect: Issues and research. New York: The Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Streuning, Karen. 2002. New family values: Liberty, equality, diversity. Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield.Google Scholar
Tronto, Joan. 1998. An ethic of care. Generations 22, no. 3 (Fall).Google Scholar
Tronto, Joan. 1993. Moral boundaries: A political argument for an ethic of care. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Waerness, Kari. 1984. Caring as women's work in the welfare state. In Patriarchy in a welfare society, ed. Holter, Harriet. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.Google Scholar
Walker, Margaret Urban. 1998. Moral understandings: A feminist study in ethics. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
West, Robin. 2002. The right to care. In The subject of care: Feminist perspectives on dependency, ed. Feder Kittay, Eva and Feder, Ellen. Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield.Google Scholar
White, Julie Ann. 2000. Democracy, justice, and the welfare state. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.Google Scholar
Widom, C.S. 1989. Does violence beget violence? A critical examination of the literature. Psychological Bulletin 106:3–28.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Winnicott, Donald. 1965. The maturational process and the facilitating environment: Studies in the theory of emotional development. London: Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psychoanalysis.Google Scholar