Care Ethics is Egoism In a Bow Tie

I know this is a throw back but i felt Like blogging about Care Ethics Again.

Care Ethics might try to sound all noble, and it may try to argue that it is a devotion to other people, however in reality it is merely Egoism dressed up in nice clothes. Egoism is a belief that ones actions are morally good if they work in one ’s self interest. While it is true that care ethics argues that we should do our best to help our loved ones, egoism can make the same claim. An egoist is allowed to help others for their own self interest. Also because care ethics focuses on one’s own family and friends; it seems to be a little bit more like egoism. An egoist will help others out of their own interest and possibly love for the people they know. Care ethics permits people to ignore the needs of strangers. Care ethics tells people to help their loved ones, it tells people they should help those that they really already want to help while allowing them to ignore the needs of strangers. This is mere egoism, egoism would tell people to help those they have interest in, and that the needs of strangers are not necessarily important.

People have a notion that egoism is an ethic of backstabbing loneliness, however it is possible for an egoist to care about others. As long as your care is rooted in your own interest, you can care about them. Think about it, you help those you love because you are interested in them, and you want to keep them with you. Egoists argue that there is no collective mind, that we shouldn’t try to help people as if they are one group and one mind. It argues that we should look toward our own interest because the only way we can feel happiness is through ourselves. So if we help others we should only help those we have interest in because of your interest in them. We can feel pleasure by helping our loved ones because they will reciprocate and give us pleasure. Would anyone in a care ethic system continue helping and loving someone who never reciprocates the care and treats them like dirt, probably not. Care ethics, or at least Nodding’s version, also makes arguments about helping others as if they were a group being bad, that we need a personal relationship with them first. This seems more like egoism because it tries to hope the system you set up has reciprocation of care. This is mere egoism.

The only real way people can even make a good claim to not be working in their own self interest is when looking at people who help others despite their desires because of their sense of duty. Universal ideas of justice are the only possible way to escape an egoist ethic; unless you are a Freudian in which case there is no way to escape. By helping those you did not know about, you are able to escape accusation of selfishness, because helping a stranger usually won’t help you. People who argue for care ethics are merely arguing for a system of selfishness.