Shadowing Practice: Ethics of Care Lecture - Learn English Speaking with Video

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So today we discuss the ethic of care

and as the name suggests the ethics of care begins with the idea

that to be good or to live a good life means to care.

We are caring beings.

And that is how the theory understands human nature.

We are feeling beings, okay, and relational beings.

Our feelings are always related to others.

The ethic of care is really a 20th century development.

and it is largely a response to the perceived historical neglect of the feminine perspective in ethics.

Now the reasoning here, which I think is sound, is that really until the 20th century,

Not only minority groups,

but also women did not have the same platform to articulate their thinking about ethical issues or metaphysical issues.

And so the result, according to these theorists, is

that a very important aspect of what it means to be

a good person has been overlooked by the subsequent history of ethical philosophy.

The feminine perspective in ethics.

And so we begin with this idea that men

and women think fundamentally differently about what it means to live a good life.

Now what do you think about that?

Do you think men and women think differently

when it comes to what it means to be good or what I ought to do?

Okay.

And I would agree with that.

And for whatever reason, one,

I think, very sound possible explanation is that traditionally men have been hunters, right?

And women have been caretakers.

Okay?

Now this has changed dramatically in the 20th

and 21st century where typically you know both spouses will have jobs

and you know you have house husbands

and mr. moms okay taking care of the children when the woman has a career okay so to some extent,

things have changed.

Well, yeah, because men more or less think to problem solve, as opposed to women who think like you said.

Okay, and think about why that might be.

If men are more competitive and women more sensitive or empathetic,

compassionate, this could be the result of any number of reasons.

For one thing, since men have traditionally been breadwinners and women caretakers,

think about the different strategies that each role demands.

If I'm a businessman or a hunter and I've got competition,

I cannot afford to feel compassion for my competition.

If I'm a businessman, if I work for Apple and I see that the Microsoft stock has plummeted,

I can't really afford to feel bad for them and say, you know what?

We were about to release the iPhone 6, but we're going to put it off for a little while to let you guys catch up.

That's not the way things work in the business world.

Furthermore, as a good businessman, you need to be impartial.

You should treat all of your business associates the same way.

But in the home, things are completely different.

Obviously, a mother not only will be partial to her own children,

as opposed to the children of strangers,

but I don't think I'm going out on a limb to say that it's right that she does that.

She brought these particular children into the world.

They have come to depend upon her.

She has presented herself as their caretaker,

and so she does have a special obligation to her own children that she does not have to other children.

So the ethics of care,

like utilitarianism, also has a major break with traditional ethical thinking.

Every theory that we have looked at so far, whether it's virtue ethics, natural law ethics,

contract ethics, or utilitarianism, has insisted on some principle of equality or impartiality.

I should be impartial when making moral decisions.

It doesn't matter if we're talking about my well-being or your well-being.

I need to do the right thing, not just what's going to make me feel good.

As Socrates said, when a person is considering what to do,

he or she ought never calculate the chances of living or dying.

but only whether or not what he or she is doing is right.

Okay?

The ethic of care emphasizes partiality as a basic moral principle.

I have a moral obligation to be partial,

to show favoritism to those beings for whom I am responsible,

or to whom I have become the caretaker.

Okay?

So, for the ethic of care, living a good life means caring for others.

And according to Melnades, the moral relationship

that exists between two parties is always between what she calls

the one caring and the one cared for.

Okay?

So, I am the one caring for my children.

My children are the ones being cared for.

Now how does this relationship ensue?

Where does my obligation to care for another being originate?

it simply originates on the basis of my having established a relationship.

Okay?

Okay.

Did you say maternal?

Absolutely, certainly, okay?

Obviously, for the most part,

mothers have a maternal instinct that makes them partial to protecting their own children.

And so according to the ethic of care,

moral obligations, what I ought to do,

does not arise from rationality

or even feelings like what I feel like doing at any particular moment

or from God or from the natural purposes of things okay like natural law ethics tells us

or virtue although care ethics is an aspect of virtue theory

because one virtue is loyalty okay and think about this we would all agree that loyalty is a virtue

but loyalty by its very nature is partial it's a contradiction to say that i am loyal universally

Loyalty always takes a specific person.

I am loyal to this person, this child, this animal.

And like utilitarianism, the ethic of care also takes animals into consideration.

Because moral obligations arise from personal relationships.

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When I have presented myself as a caretaker,

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I have created for myself a moral obligation to care for the other.

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But the one cared for also has a moral obligation.

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And that is simply to acknowledge their caretaker.

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I do not think this means fawning gratitude.

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Okay?

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But it simply means, for example,

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that I explicitly recognize that my parents take care of me.

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Okay?

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And if you think about it practically, if you have spent time and energy

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and sacrificed even your own interests in the care of another,

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and that person is completely ungrateful, right?

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Treats you with disrespect.

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Acts as though they never asked you to care for them.

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You know, that was your choice.

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I don't owe you anything, okay?

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That would be an affront.

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It would be wrong.

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And so the relationship between the one caring

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and the one cared for is

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that the one caring has a moral obligation to respond to the perceived needs of the other.

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So if I see that my child needs food or clothing or education and I respond to that need,

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not because it makes me feel good, not because I don't want to go to jail, not because I have some legal obligation to do so,

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but simply because I recognize that the person

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or animal for whom I have taken on the role of caretaker is in need,

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I have a moral obligation to satisfy that need.

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So if we ask the practical question of ethics,

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namely what makes an action right or wrong?

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An action is right when it is a genuine response to the perceived needs of another.

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So imagine something like this.

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Imagine that there are many stray cats in your neighborhood, and there are tons of them in my neighborhood, okay?

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But I start putting food out for one of them, and the cat comes back the next day looking for food,

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and I feed it, and the next day, and the next day.

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I have then presented myself as caretaker, and this animal has come to depend upon me.

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And even though it can't say thank you, when it comes up to my front door and scratches and meows at me,

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that is acknowledging that I am its caretaker. and

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so I have created for myself a moral obligation to care for this being and when we

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think about what it means to be,

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let's say, a good parent or a good steward of the earth.

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We do not think about it simply in terms of having a duty or a legal obligation.

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because part of being a good parent is not just putting food on the table.

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If I'm feeding my children and I'm shoveling out macaroni and cheese on their plates and I'm saying,

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you darn kids, if I hadn't studied ethics, you'd be awful hungry.

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Well, you are failing in your obligation

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Because part of caring for a child is letting them know that they are special,

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that they mean something to you more than the anonymous child does. or imagine this

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imagine that you have put away a college fund for your child

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and you've been accumulating this money since they were born

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but as they grow up you realize your child is an average student

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and not particularly interested in pursuing further education after high school but your next door neighbor's kid

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who you don't have any particularly close relationship with is brilliant and could possibly make a tremendous contribution to the world.

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Let's even say that I believe that this child could potentially develop a cure for cancer.

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Okay?

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Well, do I take my own child's college fund and give it to my next door neighbor just because,

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let's say, on the utilitarian basis,

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this is going to bring about more happiness for the whole? Of course not. Of course not.

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I have an obligation to my child because I have created

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that moral obligation on the basis of the relationship between my child and myself.

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Okay?

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Okay.

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Now, of course, this entire theory is premised on the idea that men and women really do think differently about ethics.

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And there could be many causes for this.

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The one we've already considered is the difference in traditional gender roles.

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If men have traditionally been breadwinners and out there in the work world,

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then success means being impartial,

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not allowing your emotions or compassion to influence your decisions.

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I mean, if you have an employee who is failing his responsibilities

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or even stealing from you just because it might happen to be a friend of yours,

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you have a moral obligation to fire that employee.

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Okay?

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Because you have an obligation to the business.

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But as a homemaker, right?

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If I'm a father or a mother taking care of children on a daily basis,

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then I have a moral obligation to be partial,

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to be empathetic, compassionate, patient with my child in a way that I am not obligated to the anonymous child or animal.

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Okay?

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Another possible reason why men and women think differently about ethics,

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if indeed they do, could be something biological.

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I think we know that women have a biological imperative to protect their children.

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If you've ever watched anything on National Geographic or the Discovery Channel

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and witnessed the ferocity of a mother lioness protecting her cubs,

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she will put her own life in danger.

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she will confront a marauding male lion, which is almost certain death, to protect her cubs.

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So perhaps there is a biological imperative there.

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But whatever the origin of this difference between male and female perspectives and ethics might be,

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really is not relevant.

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The point is that, according to thinkers like Gilligan-Noddings and Held,

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part of being a good person means caring for others.

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And we care, especially for the people with whom we have personal relationships.

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And those relationships create real moral obligations.

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So I do not have a natural moral obligation to a stranger.

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Perhaps, and I think this is the case,

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the ethic of care can make room for degrees of care.

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Obviously, the level of care that I am going to exercise for my children is going to exceed

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the level of care I exercise for my next door neighbor's children.

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I still know those children and they know that I'm an adult

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that they can run to if they're in trouble and

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so I do have an obligation to those kids

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but it is not as stringent as the one I bear to my own children.

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And even if we remove this

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relationship yet another level let's say to mankind in general okay

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I don't know everyone on the earth okay

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but I do as a human being have some sort of

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relationship to humanity okay

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I have some sort of obligation to future generations even though

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they're not even born yet I should be a good steward of the earth

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I should I shouldn't destroy the earth just

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because I don't have a personal relationship with the future generations

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that will inherit the okay so I don't want you to be under the impression

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that the ethics of care is selfish

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that I am only concerned with the people that I love

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and that I have presented myself as caretaker for there can be degrees of care

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but the main issue here is

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that for the first time we see a theory

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which gives priority to being partial the

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principle of equality does not apply here there are degrees of intensity of relationships

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and the more the deeper a relationship I have with another person

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or animal the more stringent my moral obligation becomes to

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that person and again the obligation on the part of the one cared for is to acknowledge being cared for

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There was, and I believe he was a theoretical psychologist named Lawrence Kohlberg, okay?

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And he conducted an experiment whereby he took two young children,

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I think they were 12 years old, a boy and a girl, and he presented them with this scenario

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and the scenario is called Heinz's dilemma like the ketchup Heinz okay

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and he said imagine this that mr. Heinz is married

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and his wife is suffering from a fatal illness

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which is nevertheless curable

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but the cure is exorbitantly expensive prohibitively expensive okay perhaps

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it costs two dollars for the pharmaceutical company to produce

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but by the time it hits the shelf at the pharmacy it costs two hundred dollars a day okay

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so mr. Hines cannot afford to buy this remedy to save his wife

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so the question becomes should he steal it okay now obviously

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if you think back through the beer the various moral traditions

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we've discussed we may get different answers a different answer from the utilitarian

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and we get in the virtue ethic or the natural law ethic.

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But when the boy was asked what he ought to do,

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the boy immediately said, oh no, he can't steal it.

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Stealing is wrong.

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Period.

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I feel bad for his wife

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but it's not the pharmacist's problem the pharmacist has a right to make his living

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and so the boy saw things in very cut and dry terms

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and made reference to principle the principle that stealing is wrong period

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But when Kohlberg asked the young girl,

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she said, well, stealing is wrong, of course.

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But Heinz's wife should not have to die just because he doesn't have the money to afford the treatment.

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So in a sense, maybe he should steal it.

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But at the same time, she was able to see things from the pharmacist's point of view as well.

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And said the pharmacist too has rights.

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Okay?

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And so she was more multi-perspectival than the boy was.

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she was able to see things from both sides

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and was compassionate for both parties okay

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now Colbert suggests

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that we go through stages of moral development when we are first born

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all we really possess is a suckling reflex and bodily functions okay

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and when you're hungry or uncomfortable you cry you don't choose to cry you just cry

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and your caretaker your mother or your father comes

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and takes care of you will feed you will change your diaper whatever

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but then as you grow a little bit

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you realize hey wait a minute this crying thing is really powerful in fact I can cry even

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if I'm not hungry and my mom's gonna come

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and take care of me okay and so they're very egocentric okay the infant mentality is is all about itself.

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But then as this child grows a little bit and goes to school, he or she very quickly realizes that the teacher

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and the other children are not going to treat him or her the way that mommy is going to treat them.

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If I want another kid's Twinkies, I've got to bring something to the table I've got to say okay I'll trade you my peanut butter

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and jelly sandwich for your Twinkies okay and

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so the child begins to think not just in terms of ego and self-satisfaction but widens the perspective a bit

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and learns a new role.

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My role is no longer simply the child of these parents.

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But now I am also a member of this classroom.

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And we grow a little bit more.

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And my consciousness expands further.

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And I may come to recognize that not only do I have a role in my family

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and in a classroom but I have a role as a boy

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or girl I have a role perhaps as belonging to a sports team

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and as we get older we may come to understand ourselves as members of a community

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and have obligations that arise there from

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with a bit more development perhaps we begin to develop more of a nationalistic consciousness

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and eventually maybe a global consciousness and ultimately perhaps even a universal consciousness

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that moral principles ought to be universal in scope.

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Now, Colbert argues

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that these stages of moral development from the strictly egocentric to the universal

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are parallel with the stages of moral enlightenment.

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And so the more universal,

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principle-oriented, impartial my moral thinking is,

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the more morally enlightened I have become.

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But Carol Gilligan argues that just

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because we may happen to pass through these stages of so-called development

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does not necessarily mean that a global consciousness morally outranks a partial egocentric consciousness.

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Okay?

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And that my obligations to those with whom I have personal relationships

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are perhaps more incumbent upon me than any obligation I could possibly have to a stranger or to the world at large.

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So really the ethics of care is a repudiation of the idea that ethics ought to be universal and impartial.

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And rather, it should be partial and personal.

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Okay?

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Now, whether or not the ethic of care can stand on its own as a complete moral theory is highly questionable.

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Because after all, we do have a common sense notion that even when it comes to dealing with strangers,

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there are certain behaviors which are right and wrong.

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It doesn't matter if I know you or not.

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I still shouldn't steal from you.

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I still shouldn't treat you with disrespect.

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It doesn't matter if I know you okay and

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so perhaps utilitarians have something legitimate to contribute virtue ethics of

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course has something legitimate to contribute as natural law ethics does

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and so what we're starting to see is that perhaps no single moral tradition has a monopoly on the truth.

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Ethics is a complicated discipline and

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ultimately perhaps the kind of moral consciousness we develop is going to be a sort of conglomeration of bits

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and pieces and depending on the situation within which one finds oneself,

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perhaps a utilitarian viewpoint is more apt.

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Whereas in a different situation, the ethic of care may be more suitable.

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The ethics of care is an aspect of virtue ethics ethics because when we talk about loyalty patience kindness

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industriousness these are virtues and these are the kinds of character dispositions

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that are exhibited by a caring person okay

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so I would certainly be comfortable saying at least this much that the ethic of care has something

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indispensable to contribute to our ethical consciousness

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if not the basis for a complete moral theory

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it certainly does complement any other moral tradition okay

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now I have just realized a moment ago

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that I think I've taken these things out of order

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I think perhaps we were scheduled to talk about Comte first after all Comte is the 18th century moralist

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and the ethic of care is the 20th century moral theory

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but it makes no difference okay we can do this in any order we want.

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So, our next quiz will be, of course, on utilitarianism.

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Okay?

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And then the quiz after that perhaps will be on care ethics and something else.

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Okay?

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But we are now getting very close to the transitional part of the course,

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where we leave traditional ethical traditions behind and begin to consider existentialist perspectives on ethics.

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But before we do that, we are going to consider the ethical writing of Immanuel Kant,

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which is perhaps top shelf.

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It doesn't get any better.

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As far as execution, completeness,

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coherence, rationality, Kant is first rate.

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Okay?

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So your obligation right now,

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of course, is to make sure you've taken the first five quizzes and the midterm by tonight.

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As I've mentioned, if for some reason or another you cannot get one of these things done, that's all right.

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I will leave them open for you to take, but you will just have to wait for me to manually get it graded

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because the system won't grade it after the due date okay that's why

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if you've taken a quiz late you don't get a score right away okay right

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now you should have all your scores I think I've gotten through all the things

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that were in grade okay so for tonight simply worry about getting your midterm done

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and tomorrow I will introduce the deontological ethics okay

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if you have the textbook go ahead and read the chapter on deontological ethics

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but you know if you don't have time

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because of the midterm no sweat you can come back to later okay all right see you tomorrow

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This speaking lesson is built on the video “Ethics of Care Lecture”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: ethic, moral, obligation, relationship. This video has 345 sentences and 3715 words to shadow. The speech runs for 41:26. The speaker talks slowly, about 90 words per minute, so there is time to copy every sound. Only 80% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
moral adjective	/ˈmoɹəl/	Of or relating to principles of right and wrong in behaviour, especially conforming to principles of rectitude.
obligation noun	/ˌɑ.blɪˈɡeɪ.ʃn̩/	The act of binding oneself by a social, legal, or moral tie to someone.
ethics noun	/ˈɛθ.ɪks/	Morality.
ethic noun	/ˈɛθ.ɪk/	A set of principles of right and wrong behaviour guiding, or representative of, a specific culture, society, group, or individual.
steal verb	/stiːl/	To take illegally, or without the owner's permission, something owned by someone else without intending to return it.
partial adjective	/ˈpɑɹʃəl/	Existing as a part or portion; incomplete.
consciousness noun	/ˈkɑnʃəsnəs/	The state of being conscious or aware; awareness.
virtue noun	/ˈvɝt͡ʃu/	The idea of all that is good or excellent (in every sense of those terms) in a human being, collectively instantiated by a varying number of human traits known…
principle noun	/ˈpɹɪn.sɪ.pəl/	A fundamental assumption, fundamental law or guiding belief.
ethical adjective	/ˈɛθɪkəl/	Of or relating to the study of ethics.
universal adjective	/ˌjunəˈvɜɹs(ə)l/	Of or pertaining to the universe.
loyalty noun	/ˈlɔɪəlti/	The state of being loyal; fidelity.
differently adverb	/ˈdɪf.ə.ɹənt.li/	In a different way.
hungry adjective	/ˈhʌŋ.ɡɹi/	Affected by hunger; having the physical need for food.
aspect noun	/ˈæspɛkt/	Any specific feature, part, or element of something.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
catch up verb		To pick up suddenly.
come back verb		To return to a place.
come up to verb		To approach.
get through verb	/ɡɛt ˈθɹu/	To overcome; to endure.
go ahead verb	/ˌɡoʊ əˈhɛd/	To proceed with; to begin.
go through verb		To travel from one end of something to the other.
grow up verb		To mature and become an adult.
pass through verb		To go through, to travel through, to transit or lie across a place or from one place to another.

Sentences worth repeating

Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:

Where does my obligation to care for another being originate?
Did you say maternal?
I don't owe you anything, okay?
It doesn't matter if I know you or not.
I still shouldn't steal from you.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	has been overlooked · have been · has changed
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	has been overlooked · being cared · were born
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	women who think · lion, which is · behaviors which are

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 54 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, I'm, I've. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: ethics /ˈɛθ.ɪks/, ethic /ˈɛθ.ɪk/, ethical /ˈɛθɪkəl/, clothing /ˈkloʊðɪŋ/, nevertheless /ˌnɛvɚðəˈlɛs/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: obligation /ˌɑ.blɪˈɡeɪ.ʃn̩/, partial /ˈpɑɹʃəl/, consciousness /ˈkɑnʃəsnəs/, traditionally /tɹəˈdɪʃ.ə.nə.li/, compassionate /kəmˈpæʃənət/
Long words — get the stress right: universal /ˌjunəˈvɜɹs(ə)l/, differently /ˈdɪf.ə.ɹənt.li/, biological /ˌbaɪ.əˈlɑ.d͡ʒɪ.kəl/, traditionally /tɹəˈdɪʃ.ə.nə.li/, compassionate /kəmˈpæʃənət/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like moral, obligation, ethics.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: Ethics of Care Lecture - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

Key vocabulary in this video

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Sentences worth repeating

Grammar in this video

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?