A mind of care

Responding ethically to COVID-19

Authors

• Laura Hellsten Stiftelsen Åbo Akademi Centre of Excellency BACE https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1106-1880

DOI: https://doi.org/10.30664/ar.91843

Keywords:

care, COVID-19, ethics, virtue

Abstract

This article approaches issues arising out of being in the middle of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Finland in March 2020, both from the point of view of the lived experience of caring for people in our conference setting, and through analysing the statements and actions of the Finnish government from the point of view of an ethics of care. It argues that an ethics of care approach is better equipped at dealing with thinking about and understanding complex life situations such as the spread of the pandemic than what the standardised taxonomy approaches offer. It further states that an ethics of care not only provides concepts and frameworks that help people grapple with challenging situations in an ethical manner, it also enables us to imagine how hospitality and solidarity can be envisioned anew.