Feminist Ethics Webinar by Ebrahim Azadegan

Feminist ethics can perhaps be seen as a reaction against prevailing approaches in moral philosophy, such as utilitarianism and the Kantian moral subject—a subject viewed in isolation, detached from relationships and interactions. Feminist ethics grounds value not in individual freedom but in caring relationships, and it is an effort to attend to and highlight the role of people's social relations and interactions.

Carol Gilligan, one of the pioneers of care ethics, emphasizes that the narrative and story of individuals' lives, the context in which a person acts, and the relationships a person has—such as familial and friendly bonds—are important in our moral judgment. Hence, these thinkers ask us to reflect upon and re-examine concepts like impartiality, individuality, autonomy, self-determination, and similar notions, and to also take into account values such as partiality, emotions, empathy, sympathy, and loyalty. In fact, care ethics is an attempt to demonstrate values of this kind. For example, both utilitarian and Kantian approaches in moral philosophy reduce all individuals to identical units, and our duties towards family and strangers, compatriots and foreigners, friends and non-friends, do not differ much, because they are all considered a subject; whereas we might place greater value on our friends, family, and country, and give them more weight in our moral judgments.

However, in its critique of individualistic liberalisms, care ethics emphasizes the point that our personhood cannot be independent of the social relations and interactions and the texture and context in which we exist, and consequently, we must redefine our identity and autonomy with these elements. It is for this reason that one can say care ethics has a complementary character to individualistic liberalism and seeks to somewhat develop and redefine the concepts and elements of individualistic liberalism, rather than being entirely in opposition to it. To this end, care ethics asks us to consider, alongside the elements of individualistic liberalism, elements such as cooperation, friendship, social relations, the particularities and differences of individuals' life stories, dependence on behavioral context and texture, responsibility, and trust.

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Ebrahim Azadegan, Associate Professor at Sharif University of Technology, takes a look at care ethics in this webinar. The Feminist Ethics webinar was held on October 20, 2020, organized by the Sedanet Cultural Institute.

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