The Completion of Care—With Implications for a Duty to Receive Care Graciously

Abstract

Only a few care theorists have focused on what Noddings has called “the completion of care” and what Joan Tronto called “the reception of care.” I explore the logic of care as an “achievement verb” as a way to argue for the important but neglected idea that actions intended as care require that the individual being cared for accepts them in order for the actions to be considered care. I argue that the requirement that care be taken up and completed by the cared for results in an obligation to receive care graciously when it is offered in good faith and with the requisite competence.