Is personal wellbeing a function of social responsibility?
Is social wellbeing a function of personal responsibility?
Are wellbeing and responsibility two sides of the same coin?
For this Assignment, you are asked again to respond to these questions. This time, though, your response should reflect what from the readings for this week you have learned about relationality and care. To successfully complete this assignment, please read the three articles provided in the Readings and Resources section above. Then, select the article of greatest interest to you and use it to guide your response to one or more of the questions provided above. (Length requirement: approximately 200 words)
Historical interpretations of ethics
In Ancient philosophy, ethics was conceived as a way of life, a practice, a discipline concerned with the care of the self for the sake of the care of the whole.
In Modern philosophy, ethics was conceived as moral philosophy, as conduct involving universal principles, rules, and consequences.
In Contemporary philosophy, ethics is conceived as the construction or formation of the self in the context of social forces. We noted that this interpretation of ethics highlights the capacities internal and immediately accessible to the individual that serve as the basis for responsible and creative action.
Types of human formation: natural; social; and self
Natural formation is the condition of being and becoming an individual through deterministic processes. At this level, we are identical to the anatomical and physiological realities of our animal organism and the circumstances and environments in which these realities unfold. This is our animal or species nature.
Social formation is the condition of being and becoming an individual in the context of others. Social formation describes the relatively stable state in which we exist as socially conforming beings.
Self-formation is a dynamic state that describes the extent to which we are sufficiently free and able (agency) to twist free of socially formative forces and distinguish ourselves as individuals (identity). It is largely through self-formative forces that we change our lives and become who we are.
The ethical imperative
The ethical imperative is an exhortation, a call of urgent necessity and vital importance to change our lives and become who we are.
LIVED EXPERIENCE
In this week, Week 4, our second venture into lived experience as the basis of responsible and creative action involves a study of relationality (the state or condition concerning how people or things are connected) in the context of care.
Relationality “We always exist in the presence of other selves, and that the self is a part of reality only insofar as it is relational. In contrast to the traditional philosophic answers to ‘What is man?’ that fixate on reason, self-consciousness or free will, Buber argues that man is the being who faces an “other”, and a human home is built from relations of mutual confirmation.” (“Martin Buber,” Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy,)
Ethics of Care “We do not have to construct elaborate rationales to explain why human beings ought to treat one another as positively as our situation permits. Ethical life is not separate from and alien to the physical world. Because we human beings are in the world, not mere spectators watching from outside it, our social instincts and the reflective elaboration of them are also in the world. Pragmatists and care theorists agree on this. The ought – better, the “I ought” – arises directly in lived experience.” (“Nel Noddings, the ethics of care and education,” infed.org)
Care Work “In contemporary societies the most widespread motive work is care work. The securing of human lives is regarded by our civilization as its supreme goal. Foucault was right when he described modern states as biopolitical. Their main function is to take care of the physical well-being of their populations.” (Philosophy of Care, Boris Groys)