Philosophy › Contemporary › Applied ethics (bioethics, animals, global poverty)
The ethics of care (Gilligan, Noddings)
1982 onward· Idea or argument· Ethics & how to live
Well documentedSolid records, texts or physical evidence.
The view that morality centers on caring relationships and responsiveness to particular people, not only on impartial rules and rights.
See it on the Philosophy map →The idea
Idea: moral life is built on relationships of care, like parent and child or nurse and patient, and good action answers particular needs. Psychologist Carol Gilligan's In a Different Voice (1982) argued Lawrence Kohlberg's scale of moral development, which ranked abstract justice reasoning highest, undervalued a 'different voice' of care and responsibility she heard often, though not only, in women. Nel Noddings' Caring (1984) built an ethics on it. Main objection: it may romanticize women's traditional roles, and guides little beyond close relationships.
Why it matters
It challenged the idea that impartial rules are the whole of morality and influenced nursing, medical ethics, education and feminist thought.
Where it comes from
Gilligan (1982), Noddings (1984), Joan Tronto's Moral Boundaries (1993), Virginia Held's The Ethics of Care (2006). A 2000 meta-analysis found only small sex differences in care versus justice reasoning.
Still debated
Whether care is a full ethical theory, a virtue within virtue ethics, or a complement to justice is still argued.
Connections (3)
▸Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex paved the way for The ethics of care (Gilligan, Noddings)Mostly agreed
The connection
The Second Sex showed that ideas presented as universal were often written from men's point of view. That opened philosophy to women's experience as a subject. Care ethicists took up the challenge, arguing that traditional moral theory ignored caregiving work long done by women, such as raising children and nursing.
When and how
The Second Sex (Paris, 1949; English 1953) fed 1960s–70s feminist thought in the United States, from which Gilligan (1982) and Noddings (1984) emerged.
How sure are we?
Historians of feminist philosophy trace the line, but care ethicists cite de Beauvoir less than one might expect, so the influence is broad and indirect.
Debates and open questions
De Beauvoir warned that roles as mothers and carers were imposed on women; some feminists fear care ethics reinforces exactly that, so the link involves real tension.
▸The ethics of care (Gilligan, Noddings) challenged impartial, rule-based answers to What is justice?Mostly agreed
The connection
Gilligan argued that the dominant view treated moral maturity as reasoning about impartial rights and rules, the justice perspective. Care ethicists answered that morality also needs responsiveness to particular people. Susan Moller Okin later added that justice must reach inside the family, where care work is shared unequally.
When and how
Harvard, where Gilligan had worked with Kohlberg; In a Different Voice (1982). Okin's Justice, Gender, and the Family followed in 1989.
How sure are we?
Gilligan's book presents itself as a challenge to justice-based models of moral development, and 'justice versus care' became a named debate in ethics.
Debates and open questions
Whether care and justice are rival frameworks or complementary parts of one morality is debated; many, including Virginia Held, now argue each needs the other.
▸The ethics of care (Gilligan, Noddings) reshaped nursing and medical ethics within Applied ethics (bioethics, animals, global poverty)Mostly agreed
The connection
Care ethics gave nurses and clinicians language for what rule-based bioethics missed: attention to relationships, vulnerability and each patient's situation, not only consent and rights. Nursing ethics textbooks adopted it widely, and it shaped debates on elder care and disability.
When and how
Nursing scholars such as Jean Watson and Patricia Benner developed care-centered theory in the 1980s; Joan Tronto's Moral Boundaries (1993) linked care to politics.
How sure are we?
Care is a standard framework in nursing ethics texts, though how much stems from Gilligan and Noddings rather than nursing's own traditions is uncertain.
Debates and open questions
Critics say care ethics offers too little guidance for policy choices like allocating scarce resources, where impartial rules seem necessary.