Loving is Caring
Towards a Platonic Care Ethics
Period: 2025–2026
Team members:
Team Leader: doc. Laura Candiotto, PhD
Researchers: Tanuj Raut, David Rozen
PhD Students: Hardy Mirza, Jorge Arjona Quintero, Lisa Hall
Project description:
In today’s ethical landscape, care ethics stands as an alternative to other moral theories which focus on the notion of duty (deontology), virtue (virtue ethics), or the consequences of one’s moral acts (consequentialism). In contrast to these theories, the ethics of care puts relational interdependency between individuals or groups of individuals at the center of the moral realm.
Ancient Philosophy has often been a source of inspiration for ethics. The discussion over virtue ethics, which now occupies a major place in the ethical space, testifies to the importance that Ancient philosophers can bring to the contemporary discussion. In Plato, ethics takes the form of care of the soul (epimeleia tês psuchês, therapeia tên psuchên). Anchored in the Delphic inscription ‘know yourself’, the topic is a leitmotif throughout the Platonic corpus.
Our main hypothesis is that Plato’s care of the soul can offer important insights into the contemporary ethical debate, especially care ethics, because of the significant role of love and friendship in dialogical inquiry and moral education. The project is organised into three work packages: the first is centered around the relational aspect of Plato’s care of the soul; the second establishes a dialogue between the ancient sources and the contemporary debate, especially regarding care ethics as feminist ethics, embodiment and gendered care, asymmetrical caring relationships, epistemic care and solidarity; the third aims at extending the boundaries beyond human care and test the feasibility of a new Platonic Care Ethics in animal and environmental ethics.
