Episode #169 - Bruno Latour - We Have Never Been Modern

Bruno Latour - We Have Never Been Modern

In this episode, we trace the origins and development of the "ethics of care," beginning with Carol Gilligan’s challenge to Lawrence Kohlberg’s dominant theory of moral development in the 1970s. While Kohlberg’s framework privileged abstract, justice-based reasoning—exemplified by boys like Jake in the Heinz dilemma—Gilligan observed that girls like Amy approached morality relationally, emphasizing care, context, and the preservation of relationships. Her critique revealed how traditional ethical models overlooked voices shaped by caregiving roles and social interdependence. Drawing from thinkers like Virginia Held and Joan Tronto, the episode explores how care ethics redefines moral subjectivity, not as detached and rational, but as relational, emotionally attuned, and action-based. It introduces five core virtues—attentiveness, responsibility, competence, responsiveness, and plurality—as essential to developing moral maturity through care. More than a “women’s ethics,” care ethics offers a transformative alternative to justice-based frameworks, calling for a broader, more inclusive moral lens—one rooted in human connection and the maintenance of the world we live in.

Further Reading:

The Parrot and the Igloo: Climate and the Science of Denial by David Lipsky (2023)

The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming by David Wallace-Wells (2019)

This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate by Naomi Klein (2014)

See the full transcript here.