Modern Responses: Social Justice and the Ethics of Care

One of the great changes in ethical thinking in recent years has been a move away from thinking about ethics as based solely in the rational experience of the solitary subject. While rational reasoning remains a vital part of ethical philosophy, in recent years philosophers have come to appreciate the importance of understanding humans as embedded in a variety of communities and institutions, from the family, to work, government and religion. These various institutions fundamentally shape our ethical decisions and sometimes lead to conflict between the moral choices that lead to an ethical decision. While virtue ethics makes some acknowledgement of human ethical life as bound up with other people, it begins with a concept, an idea e.g. “loyalty,” that guides the ethical decision maker. More recent work in ethics, however, begins with the idea of the relationship itself: it asserts first that we exist in relation to others. While the concept of “care ethics” can’t fully capture this idea, it will provide a start for our thinking about relationship ethics.