Love and justice’s dialectical relationship: Ricoeur’s contribution on the relationship between care and justice within care ethics

Abstract

The relationship between love/care and justice was one of the key tensions from which care ethics originated; to this very day it is subject of debate between various streams of thought within care ethics. With some exceptions (e.g. Christa Schnabl) most approaches have in common the belief that care and justice are mutually exclusive concepts, or at least as so different that their application is situated on different levels. Hence, both are complementary, but distinct, so that there is no real interaction. This paper aims to investigate whether, and if so, how, a deeper understanding of Ricoeur's thoughts on this matter enriches the relationship between care and justice with respect to care ethics. This connection suggests itself from Ricoeur's interpretation of the relationship as a dialectical one in which the logic of superabundance (love) and the logic of equivalence (justice) meet. Care enables people to see the face and individuality of the one, 'le chacun,' within the anonymous structures of justice that tend to reduce all human beings to the anonymous each, 'le on'; justice in its turn is the precondition for love to become incarnated and made real. What may this view--of care and justice standing in close connection, in which they correct and strengthen each other--add to the understanding of concrete practices of care?

Ethics of Caring Conversation and Dialectic of Love and Justice

“…Like Lachman, Van Stichel 23 starts from In a Different Voice when she explores the ethics of care in the context of the debate between care and justice. However, Van Stichel covers more contributors to the ethics of care.…”

“…Apart from Tronto, they are Bubeck, 24 Clement, 25 Held, 26,27 and Noddings, 28 for instance. Despite her paper’s title on Ricoeur’s contribution to care ethics, Van Stichel 23 states that “it is impossible to jump easily into conclusions about the divergences and convergence between care ethics and Ricoeur.” However, care ethicists can benefit from a dialogue with Ricoeur since “he relates to different aspects, to various care ethicists in different ways.” 23 Similarly, Hettema 29 proposes that Ricoeur can offer “food for thought in care ethics.”…”

Rethinking the ethical approach to health information management through narration: pertinence of Ricœur’s ‘little ethics’

“…Care takes into consideration patients’ voices and desires, but usually conflicts with a depersonalised public health orientation. Although his approach has some points in common with care ethics, Ricœur does not reduce justice to friendship and equal consideration for others (Van Stichel 2014). He justifies the teleological aspect of justice by a passage through the norms of distributive justice and the political social contract.…”

Depending on Practice: Paul Ricoeur and the Ethics of Care

“…In a recent collection of articles on Ricoeur and care ethics (van Nistelrooij, Schaafsma, and Tronto, 2014;Hettema, 2014;Van Stichel, 2014;de Lange, 2014;van Nistelrooij, 2014) Joan Tronto raises a point regarding the crucial role of practices in the development of an ethic of care. She claims that care ethics should be viewed as a "practices all the way up" 1 approach to the task of living well and caring for the self and others.…”