FROM CARE OF THE SELF TO FEMINIST CARE THEORY

Abstract

This paper analyzes the notion of care through three contemporary philosophical, moral-ethical, and critical approaches. The first, drawn from Michel Foucault, is centered on the concept of care of the self. In addition, two feminist perspectives are addressed: the ethics of care, articulated through Carol Gilligan’s notion of the “different voice,” and social reproduction theory situated within feminist debates by authors such as Tithi Bhattacharya, Cinzia Arruzza, and Nancy Fraser. Each of these approaches captures a distinct dimension of care. In Foucault’s account, care of the self consists in an active ethical posture through which the subject engages in lifelong practices of self-formation. The ethics of care, by contrast, exposes the limitations of traditional moral frameworks by foregrounding human interdependence and an orientation toward responsibility and relationality. Finally, social reproduction theory situates care within the structural dynamics of capitalism, highlighting reproductive labor as indispensable to the maintenance of social life and as a central axis of contemporary political crisis. Taken together, these perspectives provide a multidimensional account of care, encompassing its ethical, relational, and structural dimensions.