Des associations de solidarité en quête d’un sens éthique en France aujourd’hui : dans quelle perspective?

Abstract

According to Paul Ricœur ethics is defined as “a good life, with and for others, within just institutions”. Conflicts that arise from the application of norms to concrete situations require that individuals can express themselves freely in order to aim for an ethical life and achieve practical wisdom. Thus we can explore ethics in the field of solidarity associations, where the activities of care or social accompaniment are asymmetric, because of the dependence of the people involved or accompanied. But the organization cannot
simply rely on ethics -consideration for the other, benevolence as a higher principle- to deny its own responsibility and choices. The question of ethics is linked to political aspects involving the individual and collective role of associations.