Етика піклування – коли «Я» переходить в «Ми» (на вибраних прикладах художніх і літературних образів)

Within the humanities and other sciences, the term “ethics of care” is interpreted differently, linking it either with the “ethics of justice” or with the challenges of modern “cultural feminism”. Therefore, it is not surprising that elements of “ethics of care” can be found in collections of UN legal acts, that both the Catholic and Orthodox churches actively promote this idea, and that it occupies an important place in modern research in the field of economics, management, jurisprudence, etc. Of course, elements of “ethics of care” also appear in media texts, literary works and works of art, and – and this is the main thesis of this analysis – these elements have existed since time immemorial, long before the formation of the very idea of “ethics of care” in its modern form. The second thesis of the proposed investigation is reduced to an attempt to determine a universal working definition of the concept of “ethics of care” and to search for the motivation for the emergence of this idea. The simplest definition of this phenomenon requires recognizing it as the basis of human existence and the starting point for ethical considerations, which is “the relationship between two persons based on mutual care, rejecting the abuse of the individual consciousness of the moral subject”. Thus, the “ethics of care” will have an identical source of origin with “ecocriticism” – it is a counterbalance to human egoism and egocentrism as a “morbid degeneration of egoism” and false individual interests. It is the antithesis of the scourge of war, death, ruin, and alienation, where the ecological component is identical to the ethical one and becomes no longer just a background or amplifier of emotions and feelings, but an independent voice in the question of the future of our world.