An Ethics of Needs: Deconstructing Neoliberal Biopolitics and Care Ethics with Derrida and Spivak

Abstract

The body in need of care is the subaltern of the neoliberal epistemic order: it is that which cannot be heard, and that which is muted, partially so even in care ethics. In order to read the writing by which the needy body writes the world, a new ethics must be articulated. Building on Jacques Derrida’s philosophy of deconstruction, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak’s notions of subalternity and epistemic violence, critical disability scholarship, and corporeal care theories, in this article I develop an ethics of needs. This is an ethical position that seeks to read the world that care needs write with the relations they enact. The ethics of needs deconstructs the world with a focus on those care needs that are presently responded to with neglect, indifference, or even violence: the absence of care. Specifically, the ethics of needs opens a space—a spacing, an aporia—for a more ethical politics of life than neoliberal biopolitics can ever provide, namely, the politics of life of needs.

Enacting citizenship through writing: an analysis of a diary written by a man with Alzheimer's disease

“…These moves open for agentic power despite cognitive impairment and represent critical steps towards an understanding of inclusive democratic societies in which a person with dementia or other neurodegenerative conditions is entitled to the same human rights as the general population. This approach capacitates people who, within the dominating Western neoliberal governmental regime, otherwise would be incapacitated and put out of order (Vaittinen, 2022). Furthermore, this thinking is increasingly becoming a foundation for dementia policy throughout Europe (O'Connor et al, 2022).…”

Feminist Care Ethics Confronts Mainstream Philosophy

“…In fostering this dialogue, Daly draws our attention to the compelling nature of care. Tiina Vaittinen's article, 'An Ethics of Needs: Deconstructing Care Ethics with Derrida and Spivak', asserts that the body in need of care is the subaltern of the neoliberal epistemic order: it is muted and unheard, partially so even in and from care ethics perspectives [31]. Building on Jacque Derrida's philosophy of deconstruction, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak's notions of subalternity and epistemic violence, and care theories that emphasize corporeality, Vaittinen develops an ethics of needs that orients us toward the difficult task of attempting to read the world that care needs-that is, needy bodies-write with the relations they enact.…”