Introduction to Philosophy

Achieve Test Prep: Philosophy

ancient Greek myth and he describes Sisyphus’s fate as being doomed to the same sort of absurd existence living our lives in and unintelligible and limited universe devoid of intrinsic meaning. Camus believed that even in the midst of absurd world, meaning is possible through critical reflection and courageously free choices. Camus believed that there is but one truly serious philosophical problem and that is suicide. He believed that even in the face of a universe that lacks ultimate purpose or meaning, suicide is a betrayal of existentialist ethics. For Camus, most of us live in a way that is unintelligible and limited until we make free choices that are courageous and work to discover meaning in an otherwise absurd universe. Empathy: The Ethics of Care The term ‘ethics of care’ is used to designate other-centered theories that emphasize the role of others in our moral relationships and includes such diverse people as Jesus, David Hume, and Nel Noddings. Noddings was a contemporary American philosopher whose work held sympathy and caring to be the most important virtues and believes that morality is rooted in natural caring a primal emotional response. Noddings articulates her view that our moral obligations are created by the caring response through her work known as A Feminine Approach to Ethics and Moral Education . The act of caring involves a full-fledged empathy that is both cognitive as well as emotional. In Noddings’ view, there is a displacement of interest from my own reality to the reality of the other moving us out of our unconscious absorption in our own frame of reference to that of another. When we care in the deep and meaningful way, the other’s reality becomes a real possibility for us and transforms into a reality that we connect to on an existential level. Noddings expressed that the caring is sustained whether it lasts long enough to be conveyed to the other, and whether it becomes visible in the world depends upon sustaining the relationship. The caring response Noddings believed is originally directed toward others and once we have developed the ability to empathize with others, we are then equipped to direct this same caring toward ourselves in our desire to cultivate our own ethically enlightened character. People who have not developed the ability to care for themselves in an ethical sense they lack the understanding of what empathetic caring is all about. They are absorbed in themselves, submerged in their own reality, living in a dualistic universe that is divided between self and not-self, and as a result, ethical growth does not exist, only physical and sensual growth. According to Noddings, we can be generally caring people and yet not behave in a caring way in a given situation. Even when well intentioned, if we are intent on imposing our own ideas before attempting to achieve a deep and empathetic understanding of what the other person is thinking and feeling the we are not caring in an authentic way. Genuine caring suggests acting on our feelings when we take on the other’s reality as a possibility and begin to feel its reality. The next natural step is to try to do something to express our caring because it feels as if we are doing it for ourselves because the boundary between our self and the other self is being erased. Caring varies from person to person and relationship to relationship and Noddings believed that universal caring is an empty concept and that there are two concepts to caring that qualify a moral response. Natural caring that occurs in humans toward children,

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