Between 2014 and 2020, care ethicist Frans Vosman († 2020) wrote several articles in which he explained the need for next steps within care ethics. Some of these were mentioned in our introduction to his article Taking Refuge in the Arts (Vosman, 2016). We now add another article.

In 2017 Frans Vosman wrote this article with the title Through the Eye of the Needle: Acknowledging the Political as a Primordial Aspect of an Ethics of Care. The saying “to pass through the eye of the needle” means to narrowly escape danger. In this paper, Vosman emphasizes the importance of the critical insights developed by the first two generations of care ethicists, while also expressing deep concerns about the current state and the future of care ethics. He outlines the danger that care ethics faces, namely the risk of losing its critical capacity, and he indicates what care ethics can and must do to defend itself against this. Essentially, further development of care ethics depends on two interconnected conditions: getting to grips with Late Modernity and getting to grips with the political.

We highlight some aspects of his discourse on the necessity of a next step, understood as engaging with Late Modernity and the political. Care ethics is originally a fundamental critique of Modernity. However, it barely delves into Late Modernity as an extremely tension-filled and paradoxical phase within Modernity. Critical sociology does investigate this unprecedented new epoch. Vosman carefully discusses and refutes Joan Tronto’s understandable objections to sociology, as well as her refusal to take the political in (care) practices as the starting point for bottom-up formation of political theory. There is understandable resistance to this, which he discusses and refutes from perspectives such as critical feminist theory and political phenomenology.

Clarification is also needed on the unclear status of ‘ethics’ within care ethics. Vosman proposes a modest, heuristic, bottom-up ethics from ethos. He shows that care ethics that does not recognize Late Modernity and rejects the political, misunderstands late modern neoliberalism. In its critique, it actually reinforces neoliberalism rather than contradicting this ideology. Neoliberalism (a fusion of economy and an idealistic culture) gladly absorbs, for example, the care-ethically idealistic proposal of an anthropology of caring, relational people (Tronto, 2017). Contemporary political ethics takes practices as its starting point and employs a critical epistemology and methodology. It also engages in the lively, interdisciplinary conversation on Late Modernity, the political, and related burning issues.

In 2023, we found in Vosman’s intellectual legacy the draft text of Through the Eye of the Needle, with proposals from his regular translator Brian Heffernan for the completion of this paper. He was supposed to present this text in 2017 at the CPSA Panel in Toronto during the sub-session Care and the Political. However, the abstract of his lecture in the pre-announcement of this sub-session has a different title. The content seems to differ partially as well ((1)). We suspect that Vosman did not deliver his initially planned lecture because the translation from Dutch was not yet ready. As far as we know, the text has not been published either ((2)). Nevertheless, we consider this paper to be of great importance for the further development of a critical, political ethics of care that Vosman, the founder of our website, envisioned. Editor Isa Schut meticulously carried out the final editing of the text ((3)).

Introduction to the article: Jeannet van de Kamp

Notes

(1) The title of the abstract is: Care Practices and Power: the Pertinence of Merleau-Ponty for a Political Ethics of Care.

(2) If this paper has been published elsewhere, please let us know and we will provide a reference. The editorial board has obtained permission from the heir of Vosman’s intellectual legacy for the publication of Through the Eye of the Needle on this website.

(3) In the translation various adaptation suggestions from Vosman’s regular translator in the spirit of Vosman were incorporated. Occasionally, for the sake of readability, a long sentence was split. The overview of literature references was completed in the editing process.

References

Tronto, J. (2017). There is an alternative: homines curans and the limits of neoliberalism. International Journal of Care and Caring, 1(1), 27-43. Retrieved on Jan 21, 2025

Vosman, F. (2016). Taking Refuge in the Arts. Retrieved on January 21, 2025