Ethics of care

The ethics of care (alternatively care ethics or EoC) is a normative ethical theory that holds that moral action centers on interpersonal relationships and care or benevolence as a virtue. EoC is one of a cluster of normative ethical theories that were developed by some feminists and environmentalists since the 1980s. While consequentialist and deontological ethical theories emphasize generalizable standards and impartiality, ethics of care emphasize the importance of response to the individual. The distinction between the general and the individual is reflected in their different moral questions: "what is just?" versus "how to respond?". Carol Gilligan, who is considered the originator of the ethics of care, criticized the application of generalized standards as "morally problematic, since it breeds moral blindness or indifference". Assumptions of the framework include: persons are understood to have varying degrees of dependence and interdependence; other individuals affected by the consequences of one's choices deserve consideration in proportion to their vulnerability; and situational details determine how to safeguard and promote the interests of individuals. The originator of the ethics of care was Carol Gilligan, an American ethicist and psychologist. Gilligan created this model in contrast to the model of her mentor, developmental psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg. Gilligan held that measuring moral development by Kohlberg's stages of moral development found boys to be more morally mature than girls, and this result held for adults as well (although when education is controlled for there are no gender differences). Gilligan further argued that Kohlberg's model was not objective, but rather a masculine perspective on morality, founded on principles of justice and abstract duties or obligations. Dana Ward stated, in an unpublished paper, that the scale is psychometrically sound. Gilligan's 1982 book In a Different Voice posited that men and women have tendencies to view morality in different terms.