ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how the public/private dichotomy breaks down and indicates how this undermines the conventional boundaries of justice and care. It discusses the possibility of expanding the boundaries of the ethic of care primarily with regard to a single hypothetical example, the Heinz Dilemma. The chapter argues that the three distinguishing features of the ethic of care need not limit it to personal contexts. It also examines that these distinctions between the ethic of care and the ethic of justice are often exaggerated or mistaken in ways that lend illegitimate support to the conventional public/private boundaries. The ethic of justice prioritizes equality in some form, while the ethic of care prioritizes maintaining one's relationships to others and meeting the needs of those to whom one is related. The chapter considers the implications of the different conceptions of the self implicit in ethic of justice and the ethic of care for the ethics' relative boundaries.
