Care Aesthetics and Its Relation to Care EthicsTom Maassen

As a new, emerging field, care aesthetics is much indebted to the immense landscape of care ethics. Historically, care aesthetics emanated from specific care ethical insights, such as care as an embodied practice and relationality as a basic characteristic of caring practices. But does this mean that care aesthetics is part of care ethics? The choice for aesthetics and repair as the central topics for this care ethics conference indeed seems to imply such a relation.

Nevertheless, a closer engagement with both approaches shows some fundamental and possibly unbridgeable differences, on several levels. Differences that might suggest the need for a sharper divide between them and indicate a more autonomous positioning of care aesthetics than has been acknowledged until now. This conference is the perfect venue for a further exploration of the relation between care ethics and care aesthetics. We will explore the question of demarcation in a contemplative dialogue. The following scholars will participate in the dialogue: James Thompson, Maurice Hamington, Réka Polonyi, Louis van den Hengel, Andries Hiskes, and Tom Maassen. Tom will offer an introduction to the relation between care ethics and care aesthetics. The conversation will be moderated by Tineke Abma.

Tom Maassen works as a Senior Researcher at Leyden Academy on Vitality and Ageing. With a background in philosophy and twelve years of experience in teaching ethics and aesthetics to medical and nursing students, he recognized that the body of the nurse – the body, perception, and experience – is a significant blind spot in nursing education and development. In his PhD research project on care aesthetics in older person care, a key topic is the relation between care aesthetics and care ethics. Other key topics include disembodiment in the care for older persons and aesthetic learning. The central question of the project is whether, and how, care workers in today’s health care system can be emancipated, by addressing perception and experience as their strongest and too often neglected abilities. In doing so, Tom employs and explores arts-based methods, such as experience-oriented aesthetic teaching, theatrical methods, and reflective woodworking.

Location
23-25 January 2025
Kontakt der Kontinenten, Amersfoortsestraat 20
3769 AS Soesterberg
Online
30-31 January 2025 more info 

OrganizerCare Ethics Research Consortium
Contact info Louis van den Hengel
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