Towards an empirical ethics in care: Relations with technologies in health care
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This paper describes the approach of empirical ethics, a form of ethics that integrates non-positivist ethnographic empirical research and philosophy. Empirical ethics as it is discussed here builds on the 'empirical turn' in epistemology. It radicalizes the relational approach that care ethics introduced to think about care between people by drawing in relations between people and technologies as things people relate to. Empirical ethics studies care practices by analysing their intra-normativity, or the ways of living together the actors within these practices strive for or bring about as good practices. Different from care ethics, what care is and if it is good is not defined beforehand. A care practice may be contested by comparing it to alternative practices with different notions of good care. By contrasting practices as different ways of living together that are normatively oriented, suggestions for the best possible care may be argued for. Whether these suggestions will actually be put to practice is, however, again a relational question; new actors need to re-localize suggestions, to make them work in new practices and fit them in with local intra-normativities with their particular routines, material infrastructures, know-how and strivings.
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Pols has developed an empirical ethics of [technology-supported] care which considers technologies as relational actors which can enhance and support the personal ethical commitments and warm care relations between people.
“Pols (92) has developed what she calls an empirical ethics of [technology-supported] care which considers technologies not as inanimate tools which make the clinical interaction more or less efficient (and as “cold” artifacts that contrast with “warm” human care) but as relational actors which, if creatively selected and “tinkered with” to fit specific situations, can enhance and support the”
From Planning and Evaluating Remote Consultation Services: A New Conceptual Framework Incorporating Complexity and Practical Ethics (2021) · cites this paper as [92]
These themes resonated with writing by feminist philosophers on the ethics of care, including the hidden work and emotional labor of low-status workers such as receptionists and unpaid carers.
“These themes resonated with writing by feminist philosophers (89–92) on the ethics of care, including the hidden work and emotional labor of low-status workers such as receptionists and unpaid carers.”
From Planning and Evaluating Remote Consultation Services: A New Conceptual Framework Incorporating Complexity and Practical Ethics (2021) · cites this paper as [92]
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- Authors
- Pols, J.
- Affiliations
- Amsterdam UMC Location University of Amsterdam (NL)
- Corresponding author
- Pols, Jeannette
- ORCID
- Pols, Jeannette
- Venue
- Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy
- Published
- 2014-07-15
- Volume
- 18
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 81-90
- ISSN
- 1386-7423 (ISSN-L)
- 1572-8633
- OpenAlex
- W2084099834
- Cited by
- 233
- References
- 53
- Citations by year
- 2026: 20 · 2025: 35 · 2024: 36 · 2023: 52 · 2022: 24 · 2021: 23 · 2020: 15 · 2019: 11 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 1 · 2015: 6
- FWCI
- 15.21
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- pure.amsterdamumc.nl
- Licence
- other-oa
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Medicine Health Care and Philosophy (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- UvA-DARE (University of Amsterdam) (publishedVersion)
- Pure Amsterdam UMC (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion)
- UvA-DARE (University of Amsterdam) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Feminism, Gender, and Intersectionality
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Ethics and bioethics in healthcare
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Ethics in medical practice
- Keywords
- empirical ethics, care ethics, human-technology relations, health technology, relational ethics, empirical turn, normative practices, good care
- MeSH terms
- Anthropology, Cultural, Cooperative Behavior, Morals, Telemedicine, Ethical Analysis, Ethics, Clinical, Ethical Theory
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