BCDU (2014) – Fürsorge

(BCDU  )

German distinguishes more clearly than English or French between care for oneself or Selbstsorge ( which, Heidegger says, is “tautological,” Being and Time  , 366 ), on the one hand, and on the other Fürsorge or “care for the other,” which Macquarrie and Robinson   translate not by “care” but by “solicitude” and which the French translator renders as assistance. Solicitude, which is “an affectionate care for others,” has a meaning different from “care” and must be attached to a different register, that of action in matters of help and social aid. “Care” designates the whole set of public arrangements necessary for the welfare of the population in a welfare state. That is a meaning for which there is no French equivalent. For example, the expressions “prenatal care” and “postnatal care” refer particularly to the responsibilities of public health agencies with regard to pregnant women and infants. Caregivers are people who, whether as volunteers or not, take care of the elderly or anyone in need.

Since in many countries the great majority of caregivers are women, feminists have offered a critique of the ethics of justice in the name of the virtues attributed to these disinterested, noncompetitive, nonquantifiable, nonpossessive behaviors that constitute most of women’s nonremunerated work: caring for children and the elderly, efforts to keep the family group intact, etc. Thus these militants seek to oppose to the “masculine” ideal of an ethics of impartiality and justice an “ethics of care.” Without taking a position regarding the “feminine” character of the values in question, we can say that these feminists’ reflections have led to a genuine “deconstruction” of universalist morality and the principle of identity, in accord with a trajectory that merges with the Heideggerian heritage of Sorge, though we cannot say that the common use of the word “care” has played a role in this matter.