Relational Ethics

Abstract

Although relational conceptions of morality have existed for many centuries, indeed probably long before alternative views, it is only lately that relationalism has been articulated as a distinct kind of ethic in English‐speaking philosophy. Recent awareness of it has been occasioned mainly by twentieth‐century challenges to characteristically male and Western approaches to normativity. On the one hand, some feminists have argued that girls and women are more likely to adhere to a relational ethic, often one of care (perhaps for reasons of nurture as opposed to nature). On the other hand, greater intercultural exchanges have made English speakers more aware of African and Asian moral philosophies, which tend to place familial bonds at the core of how to live.

Environmental Ethics: The State of the Question

“…Although the identification and treatment of "relational ethics" as a distinct variety of ethical theory is relatively new, relationally oriented approaches to ethics can be traced back hundreds or even thousands of years in multiple traditions (Metz and Miller 2016). Relational ethical approaches emphasize the character and quality of relations with others, rather than the rightness of wrongness of individual acts or the goodness of individual actors (cf.…”

Integrating Care Ethics and Design Thinking

“…Care theorists disagree as to whether care is a virtue (Halwani 2003), a different way of thinking about duties (Miller 2012), or a completely novel approach to morality (Hamington 2004). Harmony among theorists coalesce around relationality (Metz and Miller 2016) and care's social ontology (Pettersen 2011). In other words, care theory is based on the notion that humans are fundamentally relational, existing in a dynamic web of associations.…”

Confucian Harmony from an African Perspective

“…African and Chinese values, in contrast, focus on ideals of communing with other individuals or interacting with them harmoniously. I suggest they are aptly characterized as "relational" values, in contrast to individualist, relativist or holist ones (on which seeChristians 2004: 244-245;Metz 2012b;Metz and Miller 2016).…”