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CARING FOR PLANTS: CARE ETHICS IN RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN HUMAN CARERS AND PLANT CARED-FORS
Brelje, Katherine
Brelje, Katherine
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Thesis/Dissertation
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2023-12
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Philosophy
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http://dx.doi.org/10.34944/dspace/9513
Abstract
In response to the human-centered contours of care in the mainstream ethical frameworks of Nel Noddings, Eva Feder Kittay, and Virginia Held, I consider the possibility of including plant life in care ethics. This dissertation argues for inclusion of plant cared-fors in care ethics based on the capability of human carers and plant cared-fors to meet central criteria at the core of the caring relationship: carers’ valuing-attitudes for plants, caring affect towards plants, human-plant interdependency, responsive interactivity between humans and plants, and plant success conditions. These factors establish the coherency of plant cared-fors in care ethics. After offering the argument for a plant inclusive care ethic, I demonstrate in three case studies that ethical care between human carers and plant cared-fors indeed is substantiated in the world. Through interviews and other empirical research, I provide sketches of contemporary relationships in the United States between human carers and plant cared-fors in three contexts: bonsai, tomato plants, and giant sequoia trees. Despite context-relevant challenges of each (aesthetic, consumption, and wild, respectively), the case studies highlight the possibility, and in some cases actuality, of ethical care in human-plant relationships of care.  
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