The ontological primacy of care

A phenomenological analysis on the human condition reveals that care is a fundamental provision in life: human beings need care and offer care to others. However, nowadays the value of care practices is often not acknowledged. As a result the diminished value given to practices of care produces now and again a low quality of life proffering poor responses to some persons’ expectations. In order to allow the utopia of a culture of care to develop, a theory of care should be built to give an accurate foundation to the idea of care - as a critical provision for human existence - and also to determine the existentive ways to meet the requirements for the best practices of care. In this article the author examines the three words coined by the ancient Greek that highlight three different dimensions of care: a) care as "merimna", i.e the concern to preserve life; b) care as "epimeleia", the desire to let personal existentive potentialities flourish (in a Socratic perspective: either self-care as care for one’s soul, or educational care for others); c) care as "therapeia", as the reparation of injuries, in moments of vulnerability and fragility, when soul or body fall ill. Educational care consists in developing a passion for self-care by accompanying an individual in structuring the cognitive and emotional tools necessary to outline an autonomous and passionate life pathway.

Keywords: Care, education, concern, therapy

Luigina Mortari, La primarietà ontologica della cura in "RIVISTA SPERIMENTALE DI FRENIATRIA" 3/2019, pp 73-86, DOI: 10.3280/RSF2019-003003