Case Study: A Single Parent in the Army

Requirements:

Please see the case study on page 184 at the end of chapter 4:

Please answer question 1, 2 or 3, and 1 bullet from question 4.

1. Virtue ethics

• The military is cited by virtue ethicists as a potential character-building institution, one of the places a society molds a good citizenry. What are some of the virtues the military could be expected to instill? How are those reflected in this situation?


• Families are a cited source of virtue. What values should we expect family life to instill? How are those virtues reflected in this situation?


• Is there any way to bring the military virtues and the family virtues together for Hutchinson? If so, what might it be? If not, why not and what should she do?

2. Proponents of discourse ethics walk through a five-step process on the way to reaching a negotiated settlement to moral conflicts. What might the five steps look like here?

3. One of the objections to discourse ethics is that it can set up a slippery slope—that is, the people involved can form a solution that bends the rules a little bit, and next someone else wants a little flexibility too, and then someone wants a little more, and before long, the rules have completely disappeared and everyone’s doing whatever they want. Could you sketch out how this process could happen here, with the end result being the Army more or less losing the values at the core of its existence?

4. Ethics of care

• One of the key elements composing an ethics of care and distinguishing it from traditional ethical theories is this: At the center of attention, independent actors are replaced by a web of interrelated individuals. Ethics, in other words, isn’t about me and you, it’s about us. In Hutchinson’s case, she finds herself in the midst of at least two networks of “us,” two communities of people to whom she owes an allegiance and care. Describe these communities and the links binding them.


• Another of the key elements composing an ethics of care and distinguishing it from traditional ethical theories is this: The impartial application of abstract principles is replaced by the Chapter 4 Theories Responding to the Challenge of Cultural Relativism 4.8 Case Studies 205 maintenance and harmonizing of human relationships. Ethics, in other words, is less about the fair imposition of rules and more about crafting social integration. Can you find an example of this conflict between an ethics of rules on one side, and an ethics of relationships on the other, in Hutchinson’s situation?


• Another of the key elements composing an ethics of care and distinguishing it from traditional ethical theories is this: Tensions between the rights of individuals get replaced by conflicts of responsibility to others in established relationships. Ethical tensions, in other words, aren’t my rights versus yours, it’s me torn between those I care for. In the case of Hutchinson, how is she torn?


• In general, do you believe there’s a place for an ethics of care in the military? If so, where? If not, why not?