On caring and uncaring

pp. 107-136

in: James A. Marcum, The virtuous physician, Berlin, Springer, 2012

Abstract

I utilize, in this chapter, the ontological virtue of caring to explicate specifically the notion of virtuous physician. Briefly, caring is a fundamental disposition in which one exhibits profound compassion or empathy for the suffering of another in order to relief that suffering. I next examine two ontic virtues derived from caring, care and competence, which are important in medical practice. The discussion then turns to the ontological vice of the unvirtuous physician—uncaring—and the two ontic vices derived from it—carelessness and incompetence.