The ethics of care is leading to profound changes in ethical and political thinking. By proposing to value moral characteristics such as attention to others, solicitude, it has helped to modify a dominant conception of ethics by placing vulnerability at the heart of morality. At the same time, the care perspective is ethical and political, based on an analysis of the historical conditions that have fostered a division of labor in which care activities have been socially and morally devalued. Care proposes bringing ethics back to the level of the «rough ground of the ordinary» (Wittgenstein). It is a practical response to specific needs, which are always those of singular others. In her talk, Sandra Laugier focuses on how the ethics of care hence challenges traditional hierarchies in moral philosophy and expands the notion of ethics to encompass ordinary experiences and expressions, particularly those of women. By centering ethics around ordinary language uses and experiences, it operates a paradigm shift that emphasizes the significance of attention in human interactions and prioritizes the voices and experiences of caregivers, often invisibilized.

Sandra Laugier is Professor of Philosophy at Université Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne. She has published on ordinary language philosophy (Wittgenstein, Austin, Cavell); the ethics of care; democracy and civil disobedience, gender studies, and popular culture. She is the translator of most of Stanley Cavell’s work in French and an advisor for Cavell’s Nachlass. Among her publications are Why We Need Ordinary Language Philosophy (2013), Politics of the Ordinary (2020), TV-Philosophy (2023).

Flyer Forschungskolloquium Philosophie HS 2024