Nell Noddings An Ethic Of Caring

People often question what makes a person have good morals or simply what makes a person good. Many philosophers contemplate this question and come up with their own ideas. Some say that one must have a good character, having the traits others say make a good person. There are those who say that people must follow the right set of moral rules to have good morality. Performing actions that cause good results or better results than other actions is good for morality, say some. Then there is the idea of caring for others. The idea that if one was to care for those closest to oneself or directly impact is moral. All of these ideas are circulated everywhere, but it does not give the set answer on what is moral. There has to be a decision made between
If a parent or child is sick and in need of help one should feel a need to help them. The closer a person is to someone the more important it is to help them. Helping or caring those who one directly impacts can bring out the good in both sides. Nell Noddings explains the caring ethic in her writing, An Ethic of Caring. She says, "We are never free, in the human domain to abandon our preparedness to care; but, practically, if we are meeting those in our inner circles adequately as ones-caring and receiving those linked to our inner circles by formal chains of relation, we shall limit the calls upon our obligation quite naturally,” (Noddings). If one goes about caring without question it becomes less an obligation and more of a natural sense of being. If a person were not to care for those close to themselves, the person would seem cruel or not good. Because of this, it is moral to care for those directly impacted by oneself because by caring for others shows others what it takes to be moral. Caring for those directly impacted by one's actions is moral and it is the most important ethical
According to Noddings, natural caring comes without question and it happens instinctively. Ethical caring, on the other hand, is where one cares for or does a caring action but does not really want to do so. With ethical caring, one can focus on achieving the best self. With natural caring, there can be times when one rejects doing what Noddings calls the “I must”. When someone does an act of caring even though that person does not want to do it, the act becomes ethical. Going further the “I must” can turn into “I want”. When that happens it is because, “[t]he ‘I must’ is not a dutiful imperative but one that accompanies the ‘I want’,” (Noddings 701). This caring for others becomes a powerful impact on those affected. It works both ways for the one giving it and the one receiving it. This leads to why the idea of caring for those one directly impacts is the most important towards