Ordinary Realism in Ethics

The ethics of care, developed in early 1980s within feminism as a critique on the biases of neokantian ethics, is 40 years old. This book presents its key insights, the developments and debates over the years and the challenges care ethics faces. This book presents its key insights, the developments and debates over the years and the challenges care ethics faces. Internationally renown scholars from various continents have contributed, a clear sign that care ethics has spread over the globe. The key insights regard issues close by, care from person to person, but also at an institutional level and questions of global impact. Vulnerability and relationality are examples of these insights. What can caring practices, ranging from social welfare to palliative care, learn from care ethics? Has care ethics had an impact on ethics at large and what is its future?

This chapter sets out to strengthen the connection that I have sought to establish, since the publication of my first writings on the concept of care (Laugier, 2011a, 2013b), namely the connection between the ethics of care and my own philosophical background and field. It comes down to find in Ordinary Language Philosophy (OLP) resources for a reformulation of what to my mind is at stake in feminism: the inclusion and empowerment of women’s voices (and that means all women) and expressiveness, and attention to their experiences.

Cite this book chapter: Laugier, S. "Ordinary Realism in Ethics", dans Frans Vosman, Andries Baart et Jaco Hoffman (dir.), The Ethics of Care: the State of the Art, New York, Peeters Publishers, 2020/8, pp. 113-136. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1q26k08.8