Ethical relationship
Encyclopedia
An ethical relationship, in most theories of ethics
that employ the term, is a basic and trustworthy relationship that one has to another human being, that cannot necessarily be characterized in terms of any abstraction other than trust
and common protection of each other's body
. Honesty
is very often a major focus.
— the focus of feminism
and Queer theory
respectively, where relationships are central. Family role theory extends this to study paternalistic, maternalistic and sibling roles, and postulates that one's later relationships are formed largely in order to fill the roles one has grown to find comfortable as part of one's family environment - the family of origin thus setting pattern for the family of choice.
as defined in Western moral philosophy, ethical traditions emphasizing abstract moral codes expressed in some language with some judgemental hierarchy, ethical relationship theories tend to emphasize human development
. Thus they focus on unequal power
and such matters as sexual honesty
, marital commitment, child-raising, and responsibility to conduct such essential body and care matters as toilet training
, weaning
, forming attitudes to sexuality
and to masturbation
. Failures to consider consequences of teachings or examples set in these matters is disastrous, as it leads to failures of the most fundamental relationship any person has: to their own body, shame in it, pride in it, care for it, etc. Care and concern for other's bodies follows.
No ethical tradition has failed to prescribe at least some rules for the conduct of such relationships.
Carol Gilligan
famously championed the role of relationships as central to moral reasoning
, and superior as a basis for understanding human choices than any prior linguistic or meta-ethical concept (see ethic of care). Lawrence Kohlberg
, her colleague famous for work on moral development
as a part of human development, had reservations, but eventually joined her in starting a descriptive ethics
of relationship conduct in what they called the ethical community or just community: This was in effect a community of practice
which, at least in Kohlberg's conception, had a core epistemic community
of those trusted to define and resolve the disputes between members, and to facilitate the growth of moral development: not only in children, but prisoners and others. Their democratic educational interventions are still the standard against which all work in ethical relationship psychology
is measured. However they did not reconcile the different approaches to moral development they took to the project, rather, they played quite different roles in the interventions.
Donald R. C. Reed, whose Following Kohlberg: Liberalism and the Practice of Democratic Community, 1998, outlined the extension of these principles to that of deliberative democracy
, claims that "During the four years following publication of Gilligan's In a Different Voice
, (1982), Kohlberg and Gilligan both revised their accounts of moral development so that they converged far more than is commonly recognized." He argues for "extending this convergence to include the understanding developed in the just community projects."
There is also potential for application of these methods to ethical tradition. Kohlberg's student Burton Visotzky
, for instance, in The Genesis of Ethics, 1997, applied the relationship approach to Ethics in the Bible
. The book focuses on the choices and interactions of major characters in the Book of Genesis. Visotzky exploits much of the Talmud
ic, midrash
and magisterium
, demonstrating that these Jewish theological traditions too had often focused on the ethical relationship, not only between Man and God, but between others in one's family, tribe or community.
Mohandas Gandhi, Confucius
, Menno Simons
and Baruch Spinoza
are examples of figures in moral philosophy and political philosophy
who focused first and foremost on the ethical choices made in the actual framing and encounter of moral interventions. Greens
and New Confucians are two examples of modern movements that are derived in part from relational traditions.
Ethics
Ethics, also known as moral philosophy, is a branch of philosophy that addresses questions about morality—that is, concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice and crime, etc.Major branches of ethics include:...
that employ the term, is a basic and trustworthy relationship that one has to another human being, that cannot necessarily be characterized in terms of any abstraction other than trust
Trust (sociology)
In a social context, trust has several connotations. Definitions of trust typically refer to a situation characterised by the following aspects: One party is willing to rely on the actions of another party ; the situation is directed to the future. In addition, the trustor abandons control over...
and common protection of each other's body
Body
With regard to living things, a body is the physical body of an individual. "Body" often is used in connection with appearance, health issues and death...
. Honesty
Honesty
Honesty refers to a facet of moral character and denotes positive, virtuous attributes such as integrity, truthfulness, and straightforwardness along with the absence of lying, cheating, or theft....
is very often a major focus.
Basics
Usually the most basic of these relationships studied is that between the mother and child, and second most basic is between sexual partnersSex
In biology, sex is a process of combining and mixing genetic traits, often resulting in the specialization of organisms into a male or female variety . Sexual reproduction involves combining specialized cells to form offspring that inherit traits from both parents...
— the focus of feminism
Feminism
Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...
and Queer theory
Queer theory
Queer theory is a field of critical theory that emerged in the early 1990s out of the fields of LGBT studies and feminist studies. Queer theory includes both queer readings of texts and the theorisation of 'queerness' itself...
respectively, where relationships are central. Family role theory extends this to study paternalistic, maternalistic and sibling roles, and postulates that one's later relationships are formed largely in order to fill the roles one has grown to find comfortable as part of one's family environment - the family of origin thus setting pattern for the family of choice.
Contrasting Theories
As contrasted to theories of ethics that derive from social dispute resolution, or the meta-ethicsMeta-ethics
In philosophy, meta-ethics is the branch of ethics that seeks to understand the nature of ethical properties, statements, attitudes, and judgments. Meta-ethics is one of the three branches of ethics generally recognized by philosophers, the others being normative ethics and applied ethics. Ethical...
as defined in Western moral philosophy, ethical traditions emphasizing abstract moral codes expressed in some language with some judgemental hierarchy, ethical relationship theories tend to emphasize human development
Developmental psychology
Developmental psychology, also known as human development, is the scientific study of systematic psychological changes, emotional changes, and perception changes that occur in human beings over the course of their life span. Originally concerned with infants and children, the field has expanded to...
. Thus they focus on unequal power
Power (sociology)
Power is a measurement of an entity's ability to control its environment, including the behavior of other entities. The term authority is often used for power perceived as legitimate by the social structure. Power can be seen as evil or unjust, but the exercise of power is accepted as endemic to...
and such matters as sexual honesty
Honesty
Honesty refers to a facet of moral character and denotes positive, virtuous attributes such as integrity, truthfulness, and straightforwardness along with the absence of lying, cheating, or theft....
, marital commitment, child-raising, and responsibility to conduct such essential body and care matters as toilet training
Toilet training
Toilet training, or potty training, is the process of training a young child to use the toilet for urination and defecation, though training may start with a smaller toilet bowl-shaped device...
, weaning
Weaning
Weaning is the process of gradually introducing a mammal infant, either human or animal, to what will be its adult diet and withdrawing the supply of its mother's milk.The process takes place only in mammals, as only mammals produce milk...
, forming attitudes to sexuality
Human sexuality
Human sexuality is the awareness of gender differences, and the capacity to have erotic experiences and responses. Human sexuality can also be described as the way someone is sexually attracted to another person whether it is to opposite sexes , to the same sex , to either sexes , or not being...
and to masturbation
Masturbation
Masturbation refers to sexual stimulation of a person's own genitals, usually to the point of orgasm. The stimulation can be performed manually, by use of objects or tools, or by some combination of these methods. Masturbation is a common form of autoeroticism...
. Failures to consider consequences of teachings or examples set in these matters is disastrous, as it leads to failures of the most fundamental relationship any person has: to their own body, shame in it, pride in it, care for it, etc. Care and concern for other's bodies follows.
No ethical tradition has failed to prescribe at least some rules for the conduct of such relationships.
Carol Gilligan
Carol Gilligan
Carol Gilligan is an American feminist, ethicist, and psychologist best known for her work with and against Lawrence Kohlberg on ethical community and ethical relationships, and certain subject-object problems in ethics. She is currently a Professor at New York University and a Visiting Professor...
famously championed the role of relationships as central to moral reasoning
Moral reasoning
Moral reasoning is a study in psychology that overlaps with moral philosophy. It is also called moral development. Prominent contributors to theory include Lawrence Kohlberg and Elliot Turiel. The term is sometimes used in a different sense: reasoning under conditions of uncertainty, such as...
, and superior as a basis for understanding human choices than any prior linguistic or meta-ethical concept (see ethic of care). Lawrence Kohlberg
Lawrence Kohlberg
Lawrence Kohlberg was a Jewish American psychologist born in Bronxville, New York, who served as a professor at the University of Chicago, as well as Harvard University. Having specialized in research on moral education and reasoning, he is best known for his theory of stages of moral development...
, her colleague famous for work on moral development
Moral Development
Moral development focuses on the emergence, change, and understanding of morality from infancy to adulthood. In the field of moral development, morality is defined as principles for how individuals ought to treat one another, with respect to justice, others’ welfare, and rights...
as a part of human development, had reservations, but eventually joined her in starting a descriptive ethics
Descriptive ethics
Descriptive ethics, also known as comparative ethics, is the study of people's beliefs about morality. It contrasts with prescriptive or normative ethics, which is the study of ethical theories that prescribe how people ought to act, and with meta-ethics, which is the study of what ethical terms...
of relationship conduct in what they called the ethical community or just community: This was in effect a community of practice
Community of practice
A community of practice is, according to cognitive anthropologists Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger, a group of people who share an interest, a craft, and/or a profession. The group can evolve naturally because of the members' common interest in a particular domain or area, or it can be created...
which, at least in Kohlberg's conception, had a core epistemic community
Epistemic community
An epistemic community is a transnational network of knowledge-based experts who help decision-makers to define the problems they face, identify various policy solutions and assess the policy outcomes. The definitive conceptual framework of an epistemic community is widely accepted as that of Peter...
of those trusted to define and resolve the disputes between members, and to facilitate the growth of moral development: not only in children, but prisoners and others. Their democratic educational interventions are still the standard against which all work in ethical relationship psychology
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
is measured. However they did not reconcile the different approaches to moral development they took to the project, rather, they played quite different roles in the interventions.
Donald R. C. Reed, whose Following Kohlberg: Liberalism and the Practice of Democratic Community, 1998, outlined the extension of these principles to that of deliberative democracy
Deliberative democracy
Deliberative democracy is a form of democracy in which public deliberation is central to legitimate lawmaking. It adopts elements of both consensus decision-making and majority rule. Deliberative democracy differs from traditional democratic theory in that authentic deliberation, not mere...
, claims that "During the four years following publication of Gilligan's In a Different Voice
In a Different Voice
In a Different Voice is a 1982 text on gender studies by American professor Carol Gilligan.Harvard University Press has described this text as “the little book that started a revolution.” In this text, she criticized Kohlberg's stages of moral development of children which argued that girls on...
, (1982), Kohlberg and Gilligan both revised their accounts of moral development so that they converged far more than is commonly recognized." He argues for "extending this convergence to include the understanding developed in the just community projects."
There is also potential for application of these methods to ethical tradition. Kohlberg's student Burton Visotzky
Burton Visotzky
Burton L. Visotzky is a rabbi and scholar of midrash. He is the Appleman Professor of Midrash and Interreligious Studies and Director of the Louis Finkelstein Institute for Religious and Social Studies at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America ....
, for instance, in The Genesis of Ethics, 1997, applied the relationship approach to Ethics in the Bible
Ethics in the Bible
Ethics is the branch of philosophy which examines the question of what actions are morally right or wrong and why. The Bible contains numerous prescriptions or laws and many narrative accounts of ethical relevance.-Ethics in the Hebrew Bible:...
. The book focuses on the choices and interactions of major characters in the Book of Genesis. Visotzky exploits much of the Talmud
Talmud
The Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....
ic, midrash
Midrash
The Hebrew term Midrash is a homiletic method of biblical exegesis. The term also refers to the whole compilation of homiletic teachings on the Bible....
and magisterium
Magisterium
In the Catholic Church the Magisterium is the teaching authority of the Church. This authority is understood to be embodied in the episcopacy, which is the aggregation of the current bishops of the Church in union with the Pope, led by the Bishop of Rome , who has authority over the bishops,...
, demonstrating that these Jewish theological traditions too had often focused on the ethical relationship, not only between Man and God, but between others in one's family, tribe or community.
Mohandas Gandhi, Confucius
Confucius
Confucius , literally "Master Kong", was a Chinese thinker and social philosopher of the Spring and Autumn Period....
, Menno Simons
Menno Simons
Menno Simons was an Anabaptist religious leader from the Friesland region of the Low Countries. Simons was a contemporary of the Protestant Reformers and his followers became known as Mennonites...
and Baruch Spinoza
Baruch Spinoza
Baruch de Spinoza and later Benedict de Spinoza was a Dutch Jewish philosopher. Revealing considerable scientific aptitude, the breadth and importance of Spinoza's work was not fully realized until years after his death...
are examples of figures in moral philosophy and political philosophy
Political philosophy
Political philosophy is the study of such topics as liberty, justice, property, rights, law, and the enforcement of a legal code by authority: what they are, why they are needed, what, if anything, makes a government legitimate, what rights and freedoms it should protect and why, what form it...
who focused first and foremost on the ethical choices made in the actual framing and encounter of moral interventions. Greens
Green Movement
The Green Movement refers to a series of actions after the 2009 Iranian presidential election, in which protesters demanded the removal of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from office...
and New Confucians are two examples of modern movements that are derived in part from relational traditions.