Moral Boundaries

by Joan Tronto

In Moral Boundaries Joan C. Tronto provides one of the most original responses to the controversial questions surrounding women and caring. Tronto demonstrates that feminist thinkers have failed to realise the political context which has shaped their debates about care. It is her belief that care cannot be a useful moral and political concept until its traditional and ideological associations as a women's morality are challenged. Moral Boundaries contests the association of care with women as empirically and historically inaccurate, as well as politically unwise. In our society, members of unprivileged groups such as the working classes and people of color also do disproportionate amounts of caring. Tronto presents care as one of the central activites of human life and illustrates the ways in which society degrades the importance of caring in order to maintain the power of those who are privileged. Winner of the 2023 Benjamin E. Lippincott APSA Award for exceptional work by a living political theorist that is still considered significant after a time span of at least 15 years since the original publication

Genres: Feminism, Philosophy, Politics, Nonfiction, Sociology

242 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Joan Claire Tronto, is a professor of political science at the University of Minnesota and was previously a professor of women's studies and political science at Hunter College and the Graduate School, City University of New York.

Reviews

[Quin Rich · Rating 4 out of 5]

Arguing that care is a fundamental, everyday feature of human life, Joan Tronto sets out to develop a working definition of care that can be applied a practically both ethically and politically. Understanding care not as an emotion or abstract principle but rather as a practice, Tronto largely succeeds in crafting a compelling and useful theory of care. Recognizing care's potential to upset power hierarchies and to seismically change the political landscape, Tronto argues that care is a four phase, ongoing, reflexive, and embodied process. This is a crucial addition to the feminist care theory/ethics literature, and is a refreshing departure from other versions of care ethics which focusing on oppressive, anti-feminist understandings of care or care as a sentiment or abstract principle. Tronto argues that while marginalized folks have disproportionately been forced to care for the privileged, everyone can care, everyone needs care, and everyone should want to care.

My only critique is that Tronto seems bound to some notion of political liberalism (e.g. liberal democracy is best political system, communitarianism is always already bad, the individual is a primary unit of political analysis) which I think ultimately undermines/contradicts her larger points at times. But beyond that and a few confusing examples, this is an excellent text that was fascinating and insightful to read, and has actually informed my everyday political and ethical thinking.

[Carmen Marshall · Rating 3 out of 5]

Going to be a central text for my thesis. Really interesting actually even though I feel like her arguments are essentially common sense for women of color. She tried her best to be intersectional though thanks joan

[Kyra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tronto is definitely doing something cool. I am really enjoying my care ethics readings because they are challenging almost all my base assumptions on the nature of morality and politics. However, I am still unconvinced that care ethics is going to deliver what I need from an ethical theory - unsurprisingly I find more purchase with Aristotle. Tronto would perhaps just repeat from this book "the kind of metaethical theory that we find convincing reveals a great deal about who we are, what moral problems we think are significant, and how we view the world" (149). And I think she's probably right.
My only real beef with this book is twofold: first, her notion of care seems too small, as she focuses primarily on the role of the care-giver and not the receiver as well as not fleshing out the possibility of a network of care; and second, I think she misread Smith. I've read more on Smith's ethical thought the past six months than I ever thought I would, but in doing so I have found a profoundly interesting and robust ethical view. Tronto's view does not match what I think of Smith. However, I'll probably just write a paper about it and not bore everyone on Goodreads about it.
TLDR: Interesting stuff, but I remain unconvinced. If you are curious about care ethics, this is a good read. ;)

[Regan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tronto asks us to consider how the boundaries between ethics and politics, between public and private, and the boundary requirement that moral judgment be made from a disinterested pointed have worked to marginalize women, and exclude them from power.

According to JT this is not a problem solved by theory alone--moral arguments must be evaluated within a political context. This will require the reshifting of moral boundaries insofar as it requires both a blurring of ethics and politics and well as a blurring of the strong distinction between the public and the private. JT proposes that a political Ethic of Care can do this.

She outlines caring practices along four lines (she prefers to think of care as practice rather than as a disposition): Caring About (recognition that care is needed), Taking Care (assuming responsibility for identified need), Care-Giving (the direct meeting of needs) and Care-Receiving (verification that the need has been met). From these four kinds of caring relationship she generates/locates four ethical elements of care: attentiveness to the needs of others, a notion of responsibility as distinct from a notion of obligation, competence to enact the care, and a responsiveness to the vulnerability of others. Because she thinks caring is an activity that can be directed to institutions and not merely individuals, she is in a position to argue that institutions may also better reflect the Ethic of Care.

One of her most interesting claims is that as caring currently functions in the world, the ones "caring about" and the ones "taking care" typically are those who hold positions of power, while the actual care-giving and care receiving are disproportionately practiced by marginalized persons, such as women and minorities. A revaluation of socio-political values can help us to see how to more equitably distribute care work in modern society.

[Julian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Moral Boundaries lays out the fundament of Care Ethics as a new ethical approach, which in my view has much political and societal value. I had to read this book in the context of my new studies on Care Ethics & Policy and thereby one of my first philosophical books. It is therefore no surprise that every single page has been marked or annotated, which was a really fun practice to do.

Joan Tronto has a very eloquent and structural writing style, making the book relatively easy to comprehend. Though the content of what Care Ethics entails on itself could have been placed earlier in the book, assuring that the other chapters are situated in the context of Care Ethics, instead of the other way around.

[Ziyi Hua · Rating 4 out of 5]

the ethics of care can be applied to environmental and social justice issues as it emphasizes the interconnectedness of human beings and their natural environment. Joan Tronto's book "Moral Boundaries" provides a framework for understanding the ethics of care and how it can be applied to various contexts, including environmental and social justice issues. Here are some examples of how the ethics of care can be applied to these issues:
1. Environmental Justice: Environmental justice is the fair distribution of environmental burdens and benefits across different communities. The ethics of care emphasizes the interconnectedness of human beings and their natural environment, which means that environmental harms and injustices have an impact on people's health and well-being. Applying the ethics of care to environmental justice issues means taking into account the needs and experiences of those who are most affected by environmental harms, such as marginalized communities and low-income neighborhoods. For example, the Flint water crisis in Michigan, where the predominantly African American community was exposed to lead-contaminated water, can be seen as a violation of the ethics of care as the government failed to protect the health and well-being of the community.
2. Social Justice: Social justice is the fair distribution of rights, opportunities, and resources among different members of society. The ethics of care recognizes that social justice is intimately connected to care relations, as people's access to resources and opportunities depends on the care they receive from others. Applying the ethics of care to social justice issues means recognizing and addressing the care deficits that exist in society, particularly for marginalized groups such as women, children, and the elderly. For example, the unequal access to healthcare in the United States, where low-income communities and communities of color often face barriers to accessing quality care, can be seen as a violation of the ethics of care.
In both environmental and social justice issues, the ethics of care emphasizes the importance of empathy, compassion, and solidarity with those who are most vulnerable. It recognizes that care is not just a private or individual responsibility, but a social and political one that requires collective action and social change.

[Brodie · Rating 5 out of 5]

part three was SO good i'd give that bit five stars and the rest four. i didn't care much for the bit about scottish enlightenment philosophers, but overall this was a great book and still holds up really well 30 (!) years later. she manages to distill complex arguments in relatively accessible ways (honestly i'd rather read her summaries of some theorists over the theorists themselves), and i really appreciated that not only did she call for us to imagine different futures and modes of operating, but gave us concrete things to explore and ways to frame things in this pursuit. i think that's really hard to do -- it's so easy for us to make big sweeping calls for change and then not provide any tools to imagine what a radically different future could look like (i'm sure i'm guilty of doing such a thing...).

[Robert Irish · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tronto's major case for Care Ethics really has stood the test of time well. She builds a strong argument to move Care Ethics into the political sphere by showing how Care Ethics is critical to work in justice, and indeed, how Care Ethics needs a focus on justice. She is responding to the constraints that were being placed on Care Ethics as a women's or domestic approach to ethics that could not stand up in the wider sphere.
Tronto's work is the first major piece of the Care Ethics argument following the pioneering work of Carol Gilligan and Nell Noddings. What is really helpful in Tronto's work is the way in which she defines phases of care: caring about, to take care of, caregiving, and care receiving. Each of these concepts gets expanded to help us know how to fully engage in a caring approach.

[mimo · Rating 3 out of 5]

The more works on care ethics that I read, the more it makes sense to me. With Tronto, I like that she has a rather intersectional approach. I also like how insightful she is when analysing the eponymous moral boundaries, although that term is a bit misleading given what she actually means.

I do feel that most of her reasoning is based around the American case, and that she constrained herself to imagining care as a political ideal only within a liberal democracy, without explaining or justifying that decision. Also, after a while her arguments feel a bit repetitive across chapters.

[Gizem Kendik Önduygu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bakım etiği okumalarına başlayınca Carol Gilligan’dan sonra başladım Joan Tronto’ya. 3 kitabını birden (Moral Boundaries, Who Cares?, Caring Democracy) okudum. Çokça duyduğum bakım tanımı ve beş aşamalı modeli birincil elden okuyayım istedim.

Üç kitabında da bakımın, yalnızca özel alanın değil, siyasetin, adaletin ve eşitliğin merkezinde olması gerektiğini söylüyor. Demokrasi ile bakım arasındaki ilişkiyi kurmaya çalışıyor ve güncel demokrasi tanımını bakım ile genişletiyor.

[Bethany · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good, accessible material about care ethics and the movement into its necessary placement as/within a political framework. My own philosophy differs a smidge, but that doesn't take away from this seminal work. Also really good for those critical of the notion of a feminine morality.

[Alison Coombs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fairly repetitive, but helpful for my research surrounding ethics of care + caring pedagogies, and for its critique of Nel Noddings’ work.

[Cal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Agreeable but uninteresting.