Michael Slote is Professor of Ethics at the University of
Miami. He has taught at Columbia
University, Trinity College, Dublin, and the University of Maryland, where
he was department chair for many years. He has written many articles in
philosophy of mind, ethics, and political philosophy.
He is also author of many books including:
The Ethics of Care and Empathy.
This book makes use of the
recent psychology literature on empathy to develop a version of care ethics
that applies to both personal and political morality. In this dialog we went through Michael's book and discussed it
chapter by chapter.
"Care ethicists often
speak about empathy and its role in caring attitudes and relationships,
but they haven't stressed empathy to anything like the extent that I shall
be doing here. I shall, for example, be making use of the recent
literature of psychology to argue that empathy is the primary mechanism of
caring, benevolence, compassion, etc... I argue further, that caring
motivation is based in and sustained by our human capacity for empathy
with others."
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"The
Ethics of Care very much needs the notion of empathy..."
INTRODUCTION
"Care
ethicists often speak about empathy and its role in caring attitudes
and relationships, but they haven't stressed empathy to
anything like the extent that I shall be doing here. I shall, for
example, be making use of the recent literature of psychology to
argue that empathy is the primary mechanism of caring, benevolence,
compassion, etc."
1. CARING
BASED IN EMPATHY
"I argue
further, that caring motivation is based in and sustained by our
human capacity for empathy with others."
The Ethics
of Care
The Nature
of Empathy
"I
believe that empathy and the notion of empathic caring for or
about others offer us a plausible criterion of moral evaluation."
Empathy and
Morality of Abortion
2.
OUR OBLIGATIONS TO HELP OTHERS
Immediacy
and Distance
The Limits
of Empathy and Obligation
3.
DEONTOLOGY
Empathy and
Harming
Property,
Promising, and Truthfulness
4.
AUTONOMY AND EMPATHY
Respect
Autonomy
5.
CARE ETHICS VERSUS LIBERALISM
Defining the
Issues
Arguments
against Liberalism
Paternalism
6.
SOCIAL JUSTICE
The Empathy
in Justice
"So an
ethics of empathic caring can say that institutions and laws, as
well as social customs and practices, are just if they reflect
empathically caring motivation on the part of (enough of) those
responsible for originating and maintaining them."
Distributive
Justice
7.
CARING AND RATIONALITY
"Chapter
7 seeks to draw the contrast between Kantian liberalism and the
ethics of care in wider, and perhaps starker, terms. Kantian
liberalism is a form of ethical rationalism, but the sentimentalist
ethics of caring doesn't see immorality as a form of irrationally.
The person who hates and hurts others, or who is indifferent to
anyone but himself, doesn't necessarily seem to us irrational: what
he does seem is heartless."
Is Morality
Necessarily Rational
Views of
Practical Rationality
Rational
Self-concern and Instrumental Rationality
Caring
versus Self-Concern
CONCLUSION
"But it would be nice to be able to suggest some sort of explanation
as to why empathy is relevant to right and wrong, and in the
conclusion of this book I try to do this."
"When Carol Gilligan, Nel Noddings, and other ethicists of caring draw
the contrast between supposedly masculine and supposedly feminine moral
thinking, they put such things as justice, autonomy, and rights together
under the first rubric and such things as caring, responsibility for
others, and connection together under the second. This division
naturally leaves caring ethicists with the issue of how to deal with
topics such as justice, autonomy, and rights, but it also leaves
defenders of more traditional moral theories (now dubbed “masculine”)
with the problem of how to treat (if at all) the sorts of issues that
ethicists of caring raise."
"Singer is famous for his brand of utilitarianism, his case
of the drowning child, and his radical views on famine relief. Slote has
developed a version of moral sentimentalism that provides a basis for
criticism of Singer’s views. In this conversation, Singer and Slote
debate the nature of our obligations to those in need, the place of
empathy in our moral concepts, and the proper goal of philosophical
argument."
Peter: helping
a drowning child that you see
vrs. how about
helping dying children overseas
Michael:
empathy definition
empathy v
sympathy
I feel
your pain - a relationship - Empathy-altruism
I feel
sorry for your pain - I hope to help
empathy not
shared emotion
empathy with
groups - empathic responses
empathy
relates to moral distinctions
18:00 - Peter
25:00
-Michael: what is truth of our moral obligation
30:00 - you
don't have to be a saint to do good
it arises
more
empathic with people we know and are close to v strangers
stronger
obligations to those near and dear to us
empathy and
obligation
empathy
arises against a background of self concern
need to see
what empathy is
don't need
to be a saint to have empathy
33:00 - Peter
empathy and
psychological differences
relate more
to people when we have a photo
I want
people to give more to the poor
55:00 -
Michael:
empathic
reactions and our moral judgments
empathy is
primarily directed towards others
empathy is
part to our concept of right and wrong
38:00 - Peter
39:00 -
Michael:
....
A fully
empathic person
46:00 - how do
you raise empathy
read to
children
etc.
empathy -
the way we are -
techniques
of moral education
What is
morality?
morality is
descriptive of who we are
we are
woefully inadequate in our empathic training
article in
theory and education of how to teach empathy
Need to
increase empathy to e aware of our moral obligations
where does the
imperative come from?
Fully empathic
-
52:00 Limits
second order
empathy - I am warmed by the warmth between others
