Rationale
In moral philosophy, feminism, and bioethics, an ethic of care has become a well developed alternative to other ethical approaches based on utilitarianism, the concept of rights, and distributive justice principles. These latter frameworks seem abstract, formal, and individualistic, whereas an ethic founded on the fundamental human experience of receiving and giving care stresses relationship, interdependency, and the concreteness of moral agents as mortal, vulnerable, and embodied selves. However, this ethical framework and its characteristic sensibility and orientation have not been brought fully to bear on questions of ethical responsibilities to non-human life, need, and vulnerability. Is a care ethic necessarily anthropocentric? It has played a part, obviously, in discussions of human interaction with other animals (especially pets) and in discussions of stewardship and conservation. How would care ethics function from an ecosystemic perspective? Could it enrich our way of conceptualizing our relationships with nonhuman systems?
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