ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the distinction between separateness and being-in-relation applies to many more situations than merely love and friendship. Carol Gilligan's ethics of care has given rise to an extensive discussion among philosophers. She characterizes the ways of stereotypical women with a variety of terms: "embeddedness in social interaction and personal relationships". In her account of caring, Nel Noddings contributes a great deal to the clarification of the difference between stereotypical men's and stereotypical women's relationships. She insists that the reciprocity of caring is different from an ethic of contract or promises. Unlike caring, being-in-relation is not always peaceful. Being-in-relation takes many different forms. Caring in-relation between adults emerges, in part, from joint conversations that themselves have a style all their own created by the participants. This chapter focuses on the differences between separateness and being-in-relation in the case of teaching.
