ABSTRACT

This chapter discusses the two limitations of care thinking as a practice of moral reasoning suitable for feminism. It suggests that although care thinking may have considerable utility for feminists, feminist practical ethics cannot rely exclusively on care but must supplement it with other modes of moral reasoning. Some philosophers have attempted to make precisely such an argument, suggesting that care and justice reasoning be interpreted not as independent practices of moral thinking but rather as aspects of a single practice. The chapter criticizes the care tradition for failing to explain how care thinking may be properly critical of the moral validity of felt, perceived, or expressed needs, so that it can avoid permitting or even legitimating morally inadequate responses to them. Care reasoning is often described as responding directly to particular persons and situations, whereas justice reasoning is supposedly concerned with universal principles.