Abstract

In this article, I aim to show how the act of caring is essentially intertwined with biological, psychological, social, and moral meanings. This makes it a theoretical core upon which it is possible to develop a moderately naturalistic approach, one that is philosophically relevant and meaningful. To this end, I will proceed as follows. First, I will analyze the common tendency in philosophical discourse to oscillate between extreme positions, an epistemic flaw that creates a dilemma between stubborn reductionisms and intransigent anti-reductionisms. Next, I will show how this opposition has manifested in ethics through a broad movement of naturalization — which incorporates the perspective of the natural sciences into philosophical analysis — to which much of philosophy has responded by retreating into itself, accentuating its methodological exclusivism. Finally, I will focus on the act of caring as an example to explore the relationships of continuity, novelty, and rupture between human biology and the moral dimension.