Maternal Ethics

Any attempt to define maternal ethics is ultimately tautological. In order to avoid the naturalistic fallacy that equates that which is ethical with that which is natural/extant, these arguments refer to a prior and intrinsic feature of womanhood able to distinguish the subjugation and violence of the status quo with ethical action. This nature must remain external to discourse and societal influences in order to be able to distinguish the violence of a society from non-violence or an ideal situation. The impossibility of isolating this nature from discursive constructions reveals its tautology. Situational influences determine the being of mother, who then determines the societal situation that creates her. The affirmation and actions of motherhood determines the situation in which a person becomes referred to as mother. Ultimately: the nature of motherhood is good because of the situation of caring in which she resides, and that situation itself is good/extant because of the mothering influences which create it. The absence of origin or source of motherhood demonstrates this fact- ‘motherhood’ as a term can only be found in its usage/social situation.

The deferential characteristics of motherhood relegate other social actors to the scene. This view of ‘modesty’ or ‘denial of self’ presumes static actors whom the mother interacts with. Modesty as a principle should not assume that other unstoppable forces come to bear on people. Willingness to defer interests of the self to others presumes either a situation of unequal force that remains largely acceptable to the mother, or that simply that the mother is powerless in general to assert her will to other people. Humility blurs with acquiescence.