Abstract
It may be thought that the ethics of care has developed important insights into the moral values involved in the caring practices of family, friendship, and personal caregiving, but that the ethics of care has little to offer in dealing with violence. The violence of crime, terrorism, war, and violence against women in any context may seem beyond the ethics of care. Skepticism is certainly in order if it is suggested that we can deal with violence simply by caring. Violence seems to call for the harsh arm of law and enforcement, not the soft touch of care. Elsewhere I have discussed how the ethics of care would recommend respect for international law and how it would thus approach issues of military intervention. I will concentrate here on how the ethics of care can contribute guidance in dealing with family violence and in confronting terrorism.
Acknowledgements
An earlier version of this paper was presented at a conference on Philosophy and Everyday Life at the University of Oslo, Norway, 9–10 June 2008. I am grateful to Tove Pettersen and others for comments on that version, and to Christine Koggel and Joan Orme for subsequent comments. The paper is based in part on my books The Ethics of Care and How Terrorism is Wrong.
Notes
1Massing writes that “10,000 civilians at a minimum were killed during the invasion, the large majority victims of the coalition” (p. 87).