1. ORIGINAL ARGUMENTATIVE CONTRIBUTION:
Extending Kantian Ethics to include Care Ethics. Though they may seem to be opposites, with the right adjustments and interpretations of Kantian ethics, specifically with a comparison to Kant’s concept of Duty and Noddings’ concept of our “I Must” drive, an argument can be made to include the principles of care ethics within Kant’s framework.
The reason I want to extend Kantian Ethics to include Care Ethics is in order to uplift the value of the human experience that is caring. Caring is so fundamental to our development as human beings and human connection is necessary for our survival. By viewing Kantian ethics without this lens, the human experience, one that is driven by connection and feeling, would be diminished.
2. MATERIAL APPLICATION:
My material applications for this paper are still being narrowed down but here are some of my ideas:
Personal Anecdote: Caring for my strangers, my friends, and my family due to the natural caring I received and gave with my Mother
“Learned” morality from watching my mother’s example of what to do (caring for others)
Morality that I have within myself has given me a sense of duty to act, AKA I get a feeling that “I Must” act to care for others
ETC. (Want to develop this more)
Arlie Hochschild’s Global Care Chains and Emotional Surplus Value: Work on the commodification of care in a global setting, what is means for the workers, what it means for the world, what it means for the families involved.
“I Must” feeling to care for someone felt by people who hire domestic care workers. Since they cannot do the caring themselves, they hire domestic care workers to perform the task.
Domestic care workers grow to care for the people they work for, developing an “I Must” feeling that goes beyond the requirements of their position. They also are performing an “I Must” action by working in order to send money back to their families abroad and care for them economically
Importance of emotional labor, why we should fix the broken system that encapsulates this huge labor sector
Victoria S. Wike’s Defending Kant Against Noddings’ Care Ethics Critique: Paper calling for Aare Ethics’ inclusion in Kantian Ethics
Need to develop this more
3. CONTEMPORARY INTERLOCUTOR:
Nel Noddings’ Caring: A Feminine Approach to Ethics and Moral Education
Need to develop this more (still reading her book to determine main points to use)
4. DIVERGING PERSPECTIVE:
I’m not sure exactly which route I want to take for this section, here are some possibilities I have:
Argument against Care Ethics altogether, why someone might argue it isn’t important
Argument against its inclusion within Kantian ethics for not fitting criteria
ETC. (Want to develop this more)