The moral. The personal, and the importance of what we care about
Philosophy 76 (3):415-433 (2001)
| Abstract | This paper challenges what I call ‘Frankfurt's Care-Importance Principle’ (or ‘the CIP’), according to which, ‘If there is something that a person does care about, then it follows that it is important to him.’ Indeed, caring may generate genuine importance. I claim, however, that the agent's caring may have blinding effects too, it may blind him to what is really important to him. In this kind of case, caring does not generate genuine importance; rather, it reinforces the agent's false belief that what he cares about is really important to him. In the second part of the paper, I try to explain the philosophical urgency in correcting the CIP. I claim that Frankfurt's adherence to the CIP casts doubt upon the adequacy of his conceptual framework to deal with a special kind of conflict, namely, the conflict between the moral and the personal. | |||||||||
| Keywords | No keywords specified (fix it) | |||||||||
| Categories | No categories specified (fix it) | |||||||||
| Options |
|
|||||||||
Download options| PhilPapers Archive |
Upload a copy of this paper Check publisher's policy on self-archival Papers currently archived: 5,679 |
| External links |
 |
| Through your library | Configure |
Similar books and articlesMartin Woods (2011). An Ethic of Care in Nursing: Past, Present and Future Considerations. Ethics and Social Welfare 5 (3):266-276.
Linda Steiner & Chad M. Okrusch (2006). Care as a Virtue for Journalists. Journal of Mass Media Ethics 21 (2 & 3):102 – 122.
Gillian Brock (1998). Morally Important Needs. Philosophia 26 (1-2):165-178.
Virginia Held (2006). The Ethics of Care: Personal, Political, and Global. Oxford University Press.
Linda Zagzebski (2004). Epistemic Value and the Primacy of What We Care About. Philosophical Papers 33 (3):353-377.
Daniel Engster (2005). Rethinking Care Theory: The Practice of Caring and the Obligation to Care. Hypatia 20 (3):50-74.
Harry G. Frankfurt (1988). The Importance of What We Care About: Philosophical Essays. Cambridge University Press.
Raja Halwani (2003). Care Ethics and Virtue Ethics. Hypatia 18 (3):161-192.
Matthew Noah Smith (forthcoming). The Importance of What They Care About. Philosophical Studies.
Analytics
Monthly downloads |
Added to index2009-01-28Total downloads18 ( #67,558 of 549,084 )Recent downloads (6 months)1 ( #63,317 of 549,084 )How can I increase my downloads? |
My notes
Discussion
