Reconstructing Modern Ethics: Confucian Care Ethics

Image: the Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 1991

We delineated and compared various definitions of caring according to the five major conceptualizations of caring: caring as a human trait; caring as a moral imperative; caring as an affect; caring as an interpersonal interaction; and caring as an intervention. The implications of these diverse conceptualizations of caring for nursing practice are identified, and the commonalities, strengths and weaknesses discussed. It is concluded that caring is relatively undeveloped as a concept, has not been clearly explicated and often lacks relevance for nursing practice.

Aristotle's virtue ethics addresses the important moral questions:“how should I live?” and “who should I be?” Although Aristotle has seldom been taken for a feminist, these very questions are among those identified by many feminist philosophers as the fundamental moral problems (eg Walker, 13). In a discussion with a friend and colleague, 1 we considered whether feminist criticisms against (what Margaret Walker calls) the theoretical-juridical model of ethics would apply to virtue ethics as conceived by Aristotle.

Journal of advanced nursing, 1998

The significance of the question 'Is caring a virtue?' lies in the fact that both the ethics of virtue and the ethics of care have been proposed as alternatives to what may be termed 'bioethics'. The ethics of care has been of particular interest to nursing theorists, especially those who want to say that there is a body of distinctively nursing ethical theory which is different from bioethics. In answering the main question there are three supplementary aims: first, to explore the relationship between virtue ethics and the ethics of care, it is suggested that caring is not a virtue, but that the virtues involve caring correctly; second, to give a broad outline of what is meant by an ethics of virtue, including what it means to care correctly; and third, to examine implications of the theory for nursing.

Thinking about Caring: Culture, Methods, History

Philosophy Compass 6/6 (2011): 374–384. This article examines the intersections of Confucian philosophy and feminist ethics of care. It explains the origins and contribution of care ethics to modern ethical discourse and the controversy that surrounds this ethical theory. The article discusses the emergence of comparative research on the compatibility (or incompatibility) of Confucian ren and feminist care. It first explores the question whether it is philosophically feasible to disassociate Confucian ren from its historical context by deploying it for contemporary feminist debates, especially considering that, strictly speaking, no direct counterpart in the original Confucian texts is an exact match to the words 'care' or 'caring'. Following this exploration, the article investigates what ren is and whether Confucian ren is feminist care, what the 'No Exit' Objection and the 'Domesticity' Objection are, and how ren or caring in Confucian philosophy can answer these objections. The article concludes with an affirmation of the social transformative power of ren and its feminist potential. Published in Philosophy Compass: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1747-9991.2011.00405.x

2008

A longitudinal study among practical nursing, bachelor- …, 2003

The departure point of this study is Gilligan's critique against Kohlberg's theory of moral development. The main aim was to examine whether the proposed levels of care-based reasoning form a developmental sequence. Care and justice reasoning were studied among practical nursing, bachelor-degree social work and law enforcement students in the beginning of education (N=66) and after 2 years (N=59). Main measures were Skoe's Ethic of Care Interview and Colby & Kohlberg et al's Moral Judgment Interview. Participants' real-life moral conflicts were also analyzed. Results showed that 34% of the participants progressed in care reasoning, and 48% in justice reasoning. Social work and nursing students progressed in care reasoning. All groups showed progress in justice reasoning. Care and justice reasoning were parallel in terms of internal consistency and regression. 5% regressed in care reasoning, compared with 3% in justice reasoning. Participants at the highest justice level also represented high-level care reasoning. Self-concept interviews involved descriptions of developmental transitions. Findings suggest that care reasoning constitutes a developmental sequence, from self-concern (Level 1) to caring for others and self-sacrifice (Level 2) to the balanced caring for self and others (Level 3). For women, age and androgynous gender role were positively related to care reasoning. At the posttest, participants at Level 3 were the most empathic and showed progress in empathy. Role taking was positively related to care reasoning for both genders, and to justice reasoning for men In real-life conflicts, the type of dilemma predicted moral orientation usage. Prosocial dilemmas pulled for care and antisocial dilemmas for justice orientation. Women with connected self-concept tended to use care orientation. Level of justice reasoning varied according to the dilemma type. Real-life

Ethics of care is a normative theory of ethics based on particular relationships between people, rather than universal principles. It is put forward as a rival theory to those based on universal principles, including utilitarianism and Kantianism. Ethics of care proponents argue that we have duties of care toward others, and that these duties of care are more crucial when the people for whom we care are closer to us (especially family members), or when we have taken responsibility for them (e.g. patients or children in daycare). Caring relations are recognised, including caring-for and cared-for relations between moral agents. The theory as a whole allows for partiality in our actions in cases when they involve people for whom we care. Ethics of care proponents criticise normative ethical theories - and the field of ethics in general - on how much they may overlook our duties of care and inclinations to care. All proponents of ethics of care share these foundational claims. Claims about justice, justification for actions and feminist ethics differ among the theory’s proponents. This arguably makes two versions of the theory distinguishable: the Gilligan/Noddings version and the Slote/Held version. This thesis outlines the ways that ethics of care can be useful in practice and the ways that it should be further developed.

Nursing Forum

We hereby confirm that all three contributing authors approve of this manuscript. All three authors have performed active contribution to the conception, analysis, and interpretation of the manuscript. All three authors have taken a final approval of the submitted manuscript. PROBLEM. To better understand the approach of caring in nursing and the role of theory in practice, we wanted to consolidate the caring theory of Watson with the empirical findings from the three studies performed to reveal nurses' caring intentions and their lived experience of reflecting caring theory in practice. METHOD. Through a simultaneous concept analysis of nine concepts, caring science theory was consolidated with the findings of the three empirical studies to reveal the dynamics of caring theory and caring practice. FINDINGS AND CONCLUSION. These nine concepts were found to be interrelated with the advanced concept of mediating care, which empha-sizes that mediating care calls for an authenticity...

Social Philosophy Today, 2009