Hostname: page-component-54dcc4c588-tfzs5 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-09-27T18:42:54.668Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Filial Responsibilities of Dependent Children

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2020

Amy Mullin
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The existing literature on filial morality has an important gap. It explores responsibilities adult children have toward their elderly parents, and ignores questions about responsibilities of dependent children. Filling this gap involves specifying what competent and morally decent social parents can legitimately expect from children. I argue that it is appropriate to expect and encourage young dependent children to demonstrate cooperation, mutuality, and trust, along with gratitude and reciprocity of value.

Information

Type
Original Articles
Information
Hypatia , Volume 25 , Issue 1: Special Issue: FEAST I: Current Work in Feminist Ethics and Social Theory , Winter 2010 , pp. 157 - 173
Copyright
Copyright © 2010 by Hypatia, Inc.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Belliotti, Raymond. 1986. Honor thy father and thy mother and to thine own self be true. Southern Journal of Philosophy 24 (2): 149–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Belliotti, Raymond. 1988. A reply to Narveson. Southern Journal of Philosophy 26 (2): 285–92.10.1111/j.2041-6962.1988.tb00458.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blustein, Jeffrey. 1982. Parents and children: The ethics of the family. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Bronfenbrenner, Urie. 1990. Discovering what families do. In Rebuilding the nest: A new commitment to the American family, ed. Blankenhorn, David, Bayme, Steven, and Elshtain, Jean Bethke. Milwaukee, Wis.: Family Service America, pp. 27–38.Google Scholar
Card, Claudia. 1988. Gratitude and obligation. American Philosophical Quarterly 25 (2): 115–27.Google Scholar
Carlson, Licia. 2001. Cognitive ableism and disability studies: Feminist reflections on the history of mental retardation. Hypatia 16 (4): 124–46.10.1111/j.1527-2001.2001.tb00756.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dixon, Nicholas. 1995. The friendship model of filial obligations. Journal of Applied Philosophy 12 (1): 77–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
English, Jane. 1979. What do grown children owe their parents? In Having children: Philosophical and legal reflections on parenthood, ed. O'Neill, Onora and Ruddick, William. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Fitzgerald, Patrick. 1998. Gratitude and justice. Ethics 109 (1): 119–53.10.1086/233876CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hardimon, Michael. 1994. Role obligations. Journal of Philosophy 91 (7): 333–63.10.2307/2940934CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hastings, Paul, and Grusec, Joan E. 1998. Parenting goals as organizers of responses to parent–child disagreement. Developmental Psychology 34 (3): 465–79.10.1037/0012-1649.34.3.465CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jecker, Nancy S. 1989. Are filial duties unfounded? American Philosophical Quarterly 26 (1): 73–80.Google Scholar
Keller, Simon. 2006. Four theories of filial duty. Philosophical Quarterly 56 (223): 254–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kittay, Eva Feder. 1999. Love's labor: Essays on women, equality, and dependency. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Kochanska, Grazyna. 1997. Mutually responsive orientation between mothers and their young children: Implications for early socialization. Child Development 68 (1): 94–112.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kuczynski, Leon, and Kochanska, Grazyna. 1995. Function and content of maternal demands: Developmental significance of early demands for competent action. Child Development 66 (3): 616–28.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Li, Chenyang. 1997. Shifting perspectives: Filial morality revisited. Philosophy East & West 47 (2): 211–32.10.2307/1399875CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lollis, Susan, and Kuczynski, Leon. 1997. Beyond one hand clapping: Seeing bi‐directionality in parent–child relations. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships 14 (4): 441–61.Google Scholar
Macdonald, Cameron Lynne, and Merrill, David A. 2002. “It shouldn't have to be a trade”: Recognition and redistribution in care work advocacy. Hypatia 17 (2): 67–83.Google Scholar
Minow, Martha, and Shanley, Mary Lyndon. 1996. Relational rights and responsibilities: Revisioning the family in liberal political theory and law. Hypatia 11 (1): 4–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mullin, Amy. 2005a. Trust, social norms, and motherhood. Journal of Social Philosophy 36 (3): 316–30.10.1111/j.1467-9833.2005.00278.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mullin, Amy. 2005b. Reconceiving pregnancy and childcare: Ethics, experience, and reproductive labor. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mullin, Amy. 2007. Children, autonomy, and care. Journal of Social Philosophy 38 (4): 536–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Romero, Mary. 1997. Who takes care of the maid's children? Exploring the costs of domestic service. In Feminism and families, ed. Nelson, Hilde Lindemann. New York: Routledge, 151–69.Google Scholar
Ruddick, Sara. 1995. Maternal thinking: Toward a politics of peace. Boston: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Russell, Alan, Pettit, Gregory, and Mize, Jacquelyn. 1998. Horizontal qualities in parent–child relationships. Developmental Review 18 (3): 313–52.10.1006/drev.1997.0466CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Solheim, Barbara P. 1999. The possibility of a duty to love. Journal of Social Philosophy 30 (1): 1–17.10.1111/0047-2786.t01-1-00001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sommers, Christina Hoff. 1986. Filial morality. Journal of Philosophy 83 (8): 439–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tronto, Joan C. 2002. The “nanny” question in feminism. Hypatia 17 (7): 34–51.Google Scholar
Wong, Sophia Isako. 2002. At home with Down syndrome and gender. Hypatia 17 (3): 89–117.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Young, Iris Marion 1997. Asymmetrical reciprocity: On moral respect, wonder, and enlarged thought. Constellations: An International Journal of Critical and Democratic Theory 3 (3): 340–63.Google Scholar