Synopsis
This paper begins from relational exposure: the unavoidable condition in which people enter one another’s experience as both subjects and perceived objects. It argues that moral obligation does not have to depend entirely on altruism. When one subject destabilizes another, the consequences move through the relationship and can threaten the continuity of both. Care therefore becomes a rational response to shared destabilization risk, not simply a generous response to need.
The problem it responds to
Care ethics is often criticized for relying on assumed altruism, encouraging unbounded obligation, or positioning one person as the capable caregiver and another as the dependent recipient. The paper asks whether care can instead be grounded in a condition that binds self-interested and altruistic agents alike.
What the work contributes
- Reframes care obligation as a consequence of relational exposure and mutual destabilization risk.
- Treats perception and objectification as unavoidable features of relation rather than exceptional moral failures.
- Creates the conceptual foundation later developed into Continuity Ethics, Relational Ontometry, and the Reciprocal Perception and Care Model.
Development
- Origin point for the larger relational-ethics sequence.
- Expanded into a longer Continuity Ethics manuscript.
- Operationalized through Relational Ontometry and the RPCM.
Keywords