While graduating as a student in Humanistic Studies and Political Philosophy, Sylwin Cornielje was charmed by the critical studies, that care ethics engaged in. By any means, these studies involve the question of what ‘a good society’ means from a variety of different disciplines and outlooks. As Sylwin Cornielje describes it, care ethics – more specifically the way in which he came to learn of it – at that time practiced political theory, including a small ethical theory. Continue reading On The Art of Disguising Suffering
vulnerability
Lotta Blokker’s ‘layered’ sculptures of human beings
Sculptress Lotta Blokker’s work It’s a Boy has featured on the Ethics of Care website for several years now. In July 2021, Blokker received the International Arkin Award, and a few months later she was chosen Artist of the Year (2022, the Netherlands). ((1)) These double honours are the occasion for Jeannet van de Kamp to look more closely at Lotta Blokker’s work, and also to discuss why this work is of interest to her, as contributing editor to the Ethics of Care website and as a researcher. Continue reading Lotta Blokker’s ‘layered’ sculptures of human beings
Being vulnerable is what we all share
Dutch journalist and writer Stevo Akkerman recently interviewed member of the Ethics of Care webteam and care ethicist Jeannet van de Kamp for the national Dutch newspaper Trouw about her PhD thesis Disguised Suffering.
The caption of the article reads “We have to face the reality that being vulnerable is our common ground.” Akkerman puts the focus in his article on only a small portion of the encompassing dissertation of Van de Kamp, e.g. her description of a contemporary hospital.
As even there human suffering is being disguised in manifold ways, this fact by itself illustrates in her opinion a wider phenomenon in our Western society. Continue reading Being vulnerable is what we all share
Looking at a cuckoo’s egg: Aspects of the corona-crisis in a Dutch context
Corona-crisis: is this a time for reflections on political consequences of this crisis, such as ‘lessons learned’? Or is it a time when the suffering and anxiety of many come so close to home that any kind of reflection could easily take the shape of a shortcut to new and ‘better principles for the world’?
Continue reading Looking at a cuckoo’s egg: Aspects of the corona-crisis in a Dutch context
Disguised Suffering
Jeannet van de Kamp is one of the editors of our international website ethicsofcare.org She is the last one of the PhD candidates of care ethicist Frans Vosman († 2020).
On Monday, January 19, 2026, at 13.45 CET (sharp), Jeannet van de Kamp will defend her dissertation: Disguised suffering. A care ethical inquiry into the late modern ideal of a ‘succesful life’. She dedicates her book, a monograph of 540 pages, to Frans Vosman. Continue reading Disguised Suffering
Joker; When Tragedy becomes Comedy
Joker (2019) is not an ordinary superhero film. Rather than reinforcing the familiar dualism of the previous Batman films, Joker breaks down the hero/villain paradigm and replaces it with something more multifaceted and uncomfortable.
Continue reading Joker; When Tragedy becomes Comedy