Ethics of Care
Updated 2026-08-05
INTRODUCTION
English translation pending.
CORE DEFINITION
The ethics of care contrasts with a justice-based ethics of rules, rights, and impartial calculation. It holds that moral judgment is a concrete response to particular persons in relationship: who will be hurt, who needs tending, and how the bond is preserved. Moral life starts from dependence and relationship rather than from abstract principle. The key condition is context: care judgments are made inside the situation, not applied from outside it.
SCAFFOLDING EFFECT
Reduce cognitive load
- Situated entry: identify the actual people and their relationships before applying any abstract rule. - Vulnerability first: give real weight to whoever is most fragile in the situation. - Bond balancing: weigh the continuity of relationships alongside the formal rules and principles.
Anchor fast decisions
Moral judgment here is not the abstract application of a universal rule but a response to who, in this concrete relationship, is hurt and who must be tended. Because it treats relation and dependence as the starting point of moral life rather than noise to be suppressed, it reaches decisions that rule-only reasoning misses.
MINIMUM ACTION
In progress 0/1Practice this model in one real situation:
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Source support: Explicit
- en.wikipedia.orghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_careverified
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