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Phenomenology

Is caring responsibility only a choice we take?

van Nistelrooij I, Visse M, Visse M · Medicine, health care, and philosophy · 2019

Open access · cc by · source: Europe PMC

Care ethics treats responsibility as something taken or refused; a radical phenomenology adds a passive, invisible call that comes from outside the subject.

Study at a glance

Design
Other — Phenomenological extension of care ethics via Marion/Levinas on a passive call of responsibility
N
Philosophical ethics; not an empirical sample
Population
Care-ethics accounts of responsibility (Gilligan, Noddings, Tronto, Walker) and caregiving burdens
Outcome
Passive, invisible call of responsibility beyond taken/refused voluntary responsibility

Structured fields used in claim comparison tables when every cited study has a complete layer.

Key findings

Responsibility has a passive side: a call in silence, invisible, from outside the subject. Making that explicit is a promise for care ethics, not a replacement of Tronto/Walker’s social analysis.

Methodology

Starting from Gilligan, Noddings, Tronto and Walker, the authors note that if responsibility is not taken, care does not occur, yet certain groups still carry it. They turn to Marion (drawing on Levinas) for a silent, invisible call, aiming to ease pressure on individual caregivers by exposing the passive aspect care ethics already has but underplays.

Limitations

This is phenomenological theory, not a new ethnography of carers. It does not measure caregiver burden.

How this study connects

Role on claims

Each row is a claim on a concept or method page where this paper supports, challenges, or qualifies the statement. Roles are hand-checked — not a model guess.

  • SupportsPhenomenologyconcept

    Care ethics treats responsibility as taken or refused; radical phenomenology adds a passive, invisible call that comes from outside the subject.

    Evidence for the claim as stated.

  • In care ethics, one phenomenological study used Marion and Levinas to expose a passive, invisible call of responsibility that comes from outside the subject, arguing this complements rather than replaces the social analyses of Tronto and Walker. The result is a re-description of what care ethics already contains, not a new account of caregiver burden.

    Evidence for the claim as stated.

  • Across the set, the output is an argument rather than a dataset. The papers describe themselves as essays, reconstructions or legal-philosophical analyses; none produces a clinical score, a cohort or a trial, and several say so explicitly in their limits.

    Evidence for the claim as stated.

Open questions

Tensions this paper is part of

From concept pages' “where studies disagree.” Disagreement means the same question; scope means different assays, populations, or outcomes.

  • Scope difference — different assays, populations, or outcomes

    Care ethics treats responsibility as taken or refused; radical phenomenology adds a passive, invisible call that comes from outside the subject.

Related papers in this topic

Same topic cluster — not a recommendation engine.