Nel Noddings
Morality begins in the concrete relation of caring for someone, and in a school that teaches how to do it.
Life
American philosopher of education (1929-2022), professor at Stanford. She is a founder of the ethics of care: morality arises from the concrete relation in which one cares for someone, rather than from abstract principles. From this she draws a view of schooling that teaches how to care. She matters for the questions on morality and education.
Main works
Grounds ethics in the caring relation between the one who cares and the one cared for.
Proposes reorganising schools around care rather than subjects alone.
Positions
click a row to see the evidenceMorality grows out of caring relations between people, not from universal rules or calculation of outcomes.
Noddings, Caring: A Feminine Approach to Ethics and Moral Education (1984)
Ethical caring rests on a natural human caring impulse that education should cultivate.
Noddings, Caring (1984)