Levinas' ethics of caring: implications and limits in nursing

Area of Science:

• Nursing Ethics
• Moral Philosophy

Background:

• Caring is a fundamental concept in nursing practice and a significant issue in nursing ethics.
• Existing ethical frameworks may not fully capture the nuances of nurse-patient relationships.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe the moral characteristics essential for nursing care.
• To analyze these characteristics through the lens of Emmanuel Levinas' ethics, specifically the concept of responsibility for the Other.

Main Methods:

• Philosophical analysis of nursing care ethics.
• Application of Levinas' ethical concepts, focusing on altruism and responsibility.

Main Results:

• Levinas' ethics highlights the altruistic aspect of care, emphasizing a nurse's duty to meet the needs of those suffering and respond morally.
• The theory underscores passive sensibilities and moral responsibility as drivers for empathy in nursing.

Conclusions:

• While Levinas' ethics provides a valuable framework for understanding the responsibility inherent in nursing care, it has limitations in explaining the formation of caring relationships by autonomous moral subjects.
• Further exploration is needed to integrate the autonomous nurse as a moral subject within ethical frameworks of care.