CARE - FROM THEORY TO ORIENTATION AND BACK

In this paper, I urge that the very real lessons Carol Gilligan's work in moral psychology offer to moral philosophy can best be appreciated if we take seriously the gap between the two disciplines. The care an d justice perspectives Gilligan explores are psychological orientation s, and orientations are defined as much by matters of emphasis, select ivity of interpretation, and gestalt as they are by propositional comm itment. As such, I argue, their contribution to moral theory is best s een as stances from which to do theory, rather than as constituting re ady-made theories themselves. In pursuing this train of thought, I exa mine how Gilligan's work has developed over time and how, in the end, we should understand the juxtaposition between the two orientations.