Feminist Ethics II: Noddings 4-6 FROM NATURAL TO ETHICAL CARING How do we get from "natural caring" to ETHICAL

caring? After all, caring about those closest to us (family friends! re"uires almost no effort# Animals care for their young and mates# $ut morality is not %ust about how we &' beha(e, it is how we ')*HT to beha(e# +oddings, Ethical caring arises from natural caring -L). a res/onse to "our own best memories of caring 0 being cared for" 11 what +oddings calls the ideal of a "best self" The $E.T .EL2 3 the ideali4ed memory of our caring relations .o, ethical caring mediates between natural inclinations (want what is best for me 0 mine! and the "best self" ideal "I want I must" , mo(e from descri/ti(e to /rescri/ti(e TELEOLOGICAL/ EONTOLOGICAL! "ANCTION# Is this ethical a//roach focused more on intentions5duty or on outcomes? /#67, end of third /aragra/h The cared1for has some need# 8hat does an ethical one1caring do? 111+'T shift res/onsibility (".omething must be done#"! 11 /erha/s li9e when we see genocide in :wanda, star(ation in ; rd world, bulldo4ing of rainforests# 111Instead, one1caring must ma9e a "C'<<IT<E+T" 111a commitment to act or consider action 111but action is not the critical /art 111we might decide the best thing to do is let the cared1for sol(e own /roblem, or otherwise decide that if we act it would not be in best interests of cared1for#

"the test of my caring is not wholly in how things turn out= the /rimary test lies in an e>amination of what I consider , how fully I recei(e the other, and whether the free /ursuit of his /ro%ects is /artly a result of the com/letion of my caring in him#" .o, not teleological, /rimarily deontological 8hat then is the ".anction" of caring ethics? 8hy "must" we care? The two sentiments described abo(e (natural caring ideal of caring self! create the feeling of duty# $ut 8H? must we do our duty? /# 6;16@, 8e recogni4e caring as good# Caring is better than5su/erior to other forms of relatedness# Indeed, our conce/t of a "best self" is of a caring self# +'TICE, an ideal is /laced abo(e any /rinci/le# +'T a /rinci/le, we should care for othersA $ut an ideal, As one1caring, I mustA .ee /# 6@, toward bottom (this was mentioned last timeA! <oral /rinci/les rely on "sameness" of situations which is not the reality# Ideals can be a//lied to uni"ue situations# LIMIT" OF CARING .o far, +oddings has argued that our "+atural care" for family must be e>tended to ethical caring for others# All others? /# 6B "'ur obligation is limited and delimited by relation#" 'bligation e>ists '+L? where there is /ossibility of "com/letion" 11 i#e#, /ossibility that our caring will be recei(ed A. caring= /ossibility that cared1 for will res/ond# How to decide when we are obligated to care? C criteria, 111e>istence or /otential for /resent relation 111dynamic /otential for growth in relation, increased reci/rocity, and /ossibly mutuality

EDA<-LE, -roblem of abortion# (/# 6E1 two situations, rather o//osite decisionsA! RIGHT AN $RONG

8ill also be de/endent on situations, but we need to remember that e(eryone we encounter is to be treated as cared1for, so far as /ossible, with /reference to closer relationshi/s but (alue for all /otential relationshi/s# .o, 9illing 0 stealing will almost always be "wrong" but by /rinci/le5law= rather because they almost always inhibit caring for others or (iolate others# (/#F;! %THE I EAL% The obligation to care for others arises, we saw, in natural caring ideal (best self ideal! 8hat is this ideal? How do we create this ideal for oursel(es? 7! The ideal re"uires a caring attitude (not grudgingly caring, but doing so out of lo(e! C! It is necessary to maintain the ideal 5 act in a way consistent with this ideal 111("Gane the e>/lorer" 11 ultimately refuses the dilemma, or acce/ts death of all 7H, rather than sacrifice the caring ideal of self 0 fellow e>/lorers! .o, all of our /ast actions are "attached" to us as moral agents (li9e <arleyIs chains! 1118e must be honest with oursel(es (self1dece/tion would undermine the ideal! 111If we do not always li(e u/ to the ideal, we learn from mista9es and see oursel(es as flawed but still stri(ing for the ideal# (s9i/ cha/ter B! caring