ABSTRACT
Carol Gilligan’s In a Different Voice1 speaks of various characteristics associated with women’s distinctive ethical voice, but doesn’t very often mention the specific idea of an ethics of care or caring. However, in Caring2 Nel Noddings not only mentions such an ethics, but attempts to spell out in detail its characteristics and commitments. (Although she thinks that an ethics of caring is distinctively feminine, she doesn’t hold that men are incapable of thinking in such terms, or that they shouldn’t be encouraged to do so.) Noddings was the first person to attempt to spell out an ethics of care, and I think it might be useful at this point if I were briefly to outline her (earlier) views and indicate some ways in which one might respond to them.
