Varieties of Experiences of Care

The human sciences have witnessed a decades-long transition from an emphasis on theories centered on hermeneutics and the interpretation of meaning to a preoccupation with theories that privilege performance, action, and being/becoming. This essay develops out of the conceptual orientation of William James, which holds that all knowledge comes from experience, as well as the author's writings on what matters most to participants in local worlds. The essay shows how meaning and being/becoming are unified in moral life and understood as embodied and lived experiences of care and caregiving, and it draws upon the author's experience of being the primary family carer for his late wife, who died of early onset Alzheimer's disease, as well as his experience of self-isolation in the COVID-19 pandemic. The essay's intention is to advance theoretical questions raised in the author's 2019 book The Soul of Care: The Moral Education of a Husband and a Doctor.