Piecing Together a Puzzle: Feminist Materialist Philosophy and Nursing Ethics

Abstract

This chapter explores connections between discussions of nursing ethics in North America and the feminist materialist philosophy (FMP) of Nancy Fraser. The analysis first reviews key points of Fraser’s philosophical critique of capitalism. These points include explanations of the ethics of recognition, redistribution, and representation in the context of capitalism. Also considered are contradictions that Fraser identifies in “post-socialist feminist” perspectives, as these are relevant for nursing ethics. Finally discussed are Fraser’s latest FMP explanations of financialized transnational corporate capitalism, including its social, political, and economic effects. The chapter next uses Fraser’s critical theoretical explanation of capitalism to piece together some implications for nursing ethics. This critical exploration first focuses on discourses of caring in U.S. nursing, also exploring parallel developments in feminist care ethics. This analysis suggests that the ethics of care in nursing and beyond can be deepened and strengthened by greater consideration of Fraser’s FMP, explicitly in considering capitalism. Next, the discussion examines the discourse of social justice in nursing, acknowledging connections between care and social justice ethics in nursing literature. Definitions of social justice are discussed as are recent analyses of social justice ethics in Canadian and U.S. Codes of Ethics. Selected examples of social justice scholarship in Canadian and the U.S. nursing literature are next reviewed, pointing to similar theoretical and practice-oriented concerns. This review of social justice scholarship argues again that greater consideration of Fraser’s FMP can strengthen accounts of social justice in nursing ethics by explicating contextual effects of capitalism. The chapter concludes in arguing that Fraser’s work presents a puzzle for nursing ethics, a question about what form of professionalism nurses believe they are enacting under capitalism. In providing that critical approach to nursing ethics, Fraser’s FMP ultimately invites nurses to define pragmatically what forms their professional moral agency will take under capitalism.