Transcript Ethic of care

Feminist Ethics and the
Critique of Privacy
Adam D. Moore
iSchool
Feminism
• Classical Feminism: voting rights, moral and legal
equality (Wollstonecraft, Mill)
• Difference Feminism: moral and legal equality given
shared capacities. Since women and men are different
in some respects there may be differences in some
moral and legal rights (e.g. the right to abortion)
(Gilligan)
• Equity Feminism: reacting against gender feminism. .
.equity feminists reassert the goals of classical
feminism. The sex/gender system is a fiction (Sommers)
Gilligan
• Gender/radical Feminism: “the sex gender system is a
misogynous culture that socializes women to be docile
and submissive to the controlling gender.” Sommers,
(Dworkin, MacKinnon)
Adapted from: http://www.philosophicaladvisor.com/audiopowerpoints.html
MacKinnon
Feminist Ethics
Mary Wollstonecraft: reason, rather than feeling,
is the characteristic that separates humans
from other animals. It is the source of morality.
. .education is key.
• Criticized as adopting a morality suited for men,
not women
J. S. Mill: women are the moral and intellectual
equals of men.
Women have been. . . “taught to live for others; to
always give and never take; to submit, yield and
obey; to be long-suffering. They are also taught to
demur to men because they are not as smart and
strong as men. This being the case, women's virtue
is not the product of autonomous choice. Rather, it
is the consequence of social programming.”
Feminist Ethics
Kohlberg identified six stages of moral development:
1.Stage of punishment and obedience
2.Stage of selfishness and exchange (What is in it for me?)
3.Stage of mutual interpersonal expectations, relationships, and
conformity (I am a good boy/girl, How do I feel?)
4.Stage of adherence to law and morality – maintain social order
5.Stage of contracts and social contracts
6.Stage of universal ethical principles (Deontology, Utilitarianism,
etc.)
In responding to a scenario about whether to steal in order to secure a
life-saving drug, boys typically appealed to principles (4 through 6),
while girls appealed to relationships (reasoning at stage 3).
Adapted from: http://www.philosophicaladvisor.com/
Feminist Ethics: Gilligan Replies
Gilligan: all the Kohlberg test shows is that girls and boys
think differently about moral questions
• Kohlberg does not show that boys reason in a more mature
fashion. . . Different does not equal better or worse.
• Traditional ethical theories emphasize abstract principles,
general duties, individual rights, impartial judgments, and
deliberative reasoning
• The ethics of care shifts the focus to the unique demands of
specific situations and to the virtues and feelings that are
central to close personal relationships—empathy,
compassion, love, sympathy, and fidelity (Held
www.oup.com/us/static/companion)
Feminist Ethics: Rachels/Hettinger
Family and Friends (Ethics of care does better here)
• Ethic of duty/obligation/principle ill-suited to life among family
and friends: acting only out of duty toward them leads to being a
bad friend or parent
• Strict impartiality doesn’t work with family and friends and it is
antagonistic to values of love and friendship
Ethic of care doesn’t take obligation as fundamental or
require us to impartially promote interests of everyone
• Moral life. . . a network of relationships with specific other
people, and involves caring for them
• Ethic of care confirms the priority we give to our family and
friends.
http://hettingern.people.cofc.edu/Intro_Phil_Fall_2012/Rachels_Ch_11_Feminism_and_the_Ethics_of_Care.htm
Tronto: Care Ethics
• Attentiveness: is crucial to the ethics of care because
care requires a recognition of others' needs in order
to respond to them.
• Responsibility: In order to care, we must take it upon
ourselves, thus responsibility. The problem
associated with this second ethical element . . .is the
question of obligation. Obligation is often, if not
already, tied to pre-established societal and cultural
norms and roles.
Tronto, Joan C. (2005), "An ethic of care,: Cudd, Ann E.; Andreasen, Robin O., Feminist theory: a philosophical
anthology, Oxford, UK Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing, pp. 251–263
Tronto: Care Ethics
• Competence: To provide care also means competency. One
cannot simply acknowledge the need to care, accept the
responsibility, but do not follow through with enough
expertise.
• Responsiveness: This refers to the "responsiveness of the
care receiver to the care”. . .by its nature, care is concerned
with conditions of vulnerability and inequality”.
Tronto, Joan C. (2005), "An ethic of care,: Cudd, Ann E.; Andreasen, Robin O., Feminist theory: a philosophical anthology, Oxford, UK
Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing, pp. 251–263
Criticisms
Warren Farrell, “The Myth of Male Power” (2001)
http://www.warrenfarrell.org/TheBook/index.html
Martin van Creveld, “The Privileged Sex” (2013)
John Stuart Mill 1869 The Subjection of Women, "In every
respect the burden is hard on those who attack an almost
universal opinion. They must be very fortunate as well as
unusually capable if they obtain a hearing at all.”
• Men are ‘inculturated’ as well. . .
• E.g. war, draft. . .honor and glory. . .sacrifice
• Dangerous jobs, suicide rates, victims of violent crime,
lifespan, incarceration, hard labor
• Using the criteria for determining racial oppression
(lifespan, incarceration rates, suicide rates, victims of
crime. . .education levels. . .). . .should we conclude. . .?
Camille Paglia
Rachels’ Critique
Intuitions and feelings are not reliable guides – at one
time, people’s intuitions told them that slavery was acceptable
and that the subordination of women was God’s plan. (Rachels, 155)
• Case: Helping children with HIV
• Around the world two million children infected with HIV virus that
causes AIDS; only about 10% get help they need; should we help them?
• (Male) Ethic of principle, like utilitarianism, suggests we have a
substantial duty to help; our luxuries not as important as their lives
• An ethic of care based on close personal relations will not reach this
conclusion
• W/o a relationship, caring can’t take place. And we have no relations
with these children on other side of the globe. Ethics of care does not
work so well. . .
http://hettingern.people.cofc.edu/Intro_Phil_Fall_2012/Rachels_Ch_11_Feminism_and_the_Ethics_of_Care.htm
Rachels’ Critique
• Feminists believe that modern moral philosophy incorporates a
male bias
• Men have dominated public life and developed a “male ethic” of
principle/obligation/impartial justice based on it
• Concerns that arise in private life–where women traditionally
dominate–are almost wholly absent
• In private life, morality does not involve bargaining and calculating, but
loving and caring–feminist ethics
• Feminist ethics involves being a certain kind of person (loving, caring)
• Feminist ethics is thus a subset of virtue ethics
http://hettingern.people.cofc.edu/Intro_Phil_Fall_2012/Rachels_Ch_11_Feminism_and_the_Ethics_of_Care.htm
Feminist Critique of Privacy
The Darker Side of Privacy – privacy shields “domination,
repression, degradation, and physical harm”
• Privacy does not have universal/objective value
• MacKinnon’s two claims:
1.
2.
Woman have no privacy. . .so protecting privacy does not
benefit women.
The public/private distinction is nonsense. . .feminism “has to
explode the private”
The household (private) has always been a place where men
have exerted control over women. . .denying autonomy, choice,
etc. Saying that this zone should be shielded. . .that society
should not look. . .is to perpetuate the victimization of women.
Judith DeCew Replies
• While it is true that rights violations and autonomy violations
happen in private places, this does not show that privacy is
not valuable for women.
• The fact that women are oppressed in private places says nothing
about the value of privacy
• “Descriptive facts. . .fail to imply anything about the normative
value of seeking privacy protections for women.”
• Physical property rights may be used to shield immoral and illegal
activity. . .but this does not imply that property rights are not
valuable or important.
Judith DeCew Replies
• MacKinnon: “The right of privacy is a right of men ‘to be let
alone’ to oppress women one at a time.”
• DeCew: When private areas are used to oppress women is the
solution to eliminate private zones. . .to make everything
public or transparent?
• “Are there no contexts in which women wish to keep the state
out of their lives?”
• We should be clear that work in the home is valuable. . .
• Focusing on domestic violence shifts our gaze away from statesponsored control of women (abortion, etc.)
Alternative Feminist view of Privacy
• The public/private distinction . . .the market/family
distinction are ‘human creations’. . .that tend to
undervalue women and the work of women.
• Blowing up these distinctions does not mean doing
away with them. . .
Anita Allen. . .instead we need to acknowledge and value
of work, effort, autonomy, and agency in both domains of
human activity.
--privacy for women = autonomy over
reproductive choice, marriage, etc.
--there are areas where society (men included)
can’t/shouldn’t look.