Expanded Description: There is one required text: Joan C. Tronto, Who Cares? How to Reshape a Democratic Politics (Cornell University Press, 2015). The book is very short and costs $4.99. Readings will be provided for all other classes. Some of these will be by the instructor and others will be selected articles on the topics. Students will be encouraged to bring their experiences of moral decision-making to the weekly discussions.
Week 1: Introduction to Care Ethics
Summary of the moral development theories of Lawrence Kohlberg and Carol Gilligan. Explanations of care ethics based on the work of Nel Noddings, Joan Tronto, and Virginia Held. Read: “Introduction to Care Ethics” by Patricia A. Johnson. Before class, give some thought to how you make moral decisions.
Week 2: Educating Moral People
Focus on Nel Noddings’ work applying care ethics to education and the role of conversation in educating moral people. Read: Nel Noddings, “The Caring Relation in Teaching,” Oxford Review of Education, (December 2012) 38.6: 771-781 and Nel Noddings, “Moral Education in an Age of Globalization,” Educational Philosophy and Theory, (2010) 42.4: 390-396.
Week 3: Healthcare
Focus on how care is understood in healthcare and the influence of care ethics. Several case studies will be provided. Read: Cheryl Brandsen, “A Public Ethic of Care: Implications for Long-Term Care” in Socializing Care, eds.Maurice Hamington and Dorothy C Miller (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2006: 205-226); Soile Juujärvi, Kirsi Ronkainen, and Piia Silvennoinen, “The ethics of care and justice in primary nursing of older patients,” Clinical Ethics (2019) 14.4: 187-194; and Tobias Haeusermann, “The Dementia Village: Between Community and Society” in Care in Healthcare, eds. Franziska Krause and Joachim Bolt (Palgrave McMillan, 2018:135-166).
Week 4: Applying Care Ethics to Business
Focus on the belief that because business is ultimately relational, an ethics of care provides an innovative and needed moral framework for guiding business. Read: Anne Antoni. Juliane Reinecke, and Marianna Fotaki, “Caring or Not Caring for Coworkers? An Empirical Exploration of the Dilemma of Care Allocation in the Workplace” Business Ethics Quarterly(October 2020)30.4: 447- 485; and Chellis Spiller, Ljiljana Erakovic, Manuka Henare, and Edwina Pio, “Relational Well-Being and Wealth: Maori Businesses and an Ethic of Care,” Journal of Business Ethics (2011) 98:153-169.
Week 5: Care Ethics and the Nurturing of Public Discourse
Focus on the ethical dimension of the work of journalists in embodying and shaping frameworks for moral decision-making. Read: Kathleen Watters and Patricia Johnson, “Care Ethics and the Nurturing of Public Discourse: Language, Values, and the Voice of Ellen Goodman,” Teaching Ethics (Spring 2008) 8.2: 29-42.
Week 6: Care as Political
Focus on the political importance of care ethics and a political concept of care. Read: Joan Tronto, Who Cares? How to Reshape Democratic Politics (Cornell University Press, 2015).
Week 7: Care of the Earth
Applications of care ethics to global environmental issues. Read: Elena Pulcini, “Global Vulnerability: Why Take Care of Future Generations?” in Care Ethics in the Age of Precarity, eds. Maurice Hamington and Michael Flower (University of Minnesota Press, 2021: 120-143).
Week 8: Care Ethics Amidst a Pandemic
How can we think about the role of, and the need for, care ethics as we respond to living in, and hopefully through, a pandemic? Read: Maurice Hamington and Michael Flower, “Conclusion: Care as Responsive Infrastructure,” in Care Ethics in the Age of Precarity, eds. Maurice Hamington and Michael Flower (University of Minnesota Press, 2021: 281-304).