This dissertation is a Korean feminist’s engagement with and analysis of the U.S.-based white feminist integrations of justice and care developed by Sara Ruddick and Alison M. Jaggar. This dissertation reveals that three issues remain in their integrations in spite of their corrections to the liberal theories of justice as well as to care ethics: their similarly assumed notions of the self as an active and emancipated agent, their generalizations and representations of other women outside their U.S. context, and their uses of the binary framework.

In order to correct, modify, and expand the horizon of feminist ethics beyond the white feminist discourse, I inductively construct a Korean feminist ethic based on the lived-experiences of some Korean women. Deriving out of the sense of indebtedness among Korean women, three key notions of a Korean feminist ethic are constructed: the self as an indebted entity, multiple relationship dynamics as the basis for indebted relations, and moral values of respectful grace and graceful respect.

My main thesis is that the self cannot be born or survive without being deeply indebted to others. Thus, I define the self as an indebted entity to reflect the existential as well as functional indebtedness among entities. The term entity is deliberately chosen to signify the passive-objective in addition to the active-subjective aspect of the self within the multiply-indebted relations. Defined as such, an entity recognizes her utmost indebtedness in various phases and areas of life throughout her continuation of life. Then, the indebted entity can move beyond the limits of what justice-care requires of her, to be respectfully graceful and gracefully respectful towards others whose functional diversities sustain her life. Once a sketch of a Korean feminist ethic is outlined in the notions of an indebted entity, multiple relationship dynamics, and moral values of respectful grace and graceful respect, I draw from Confucian, Neo-Confucian, and process philosophy to enhance these concepts by emphasizing the existential underpinnings of these concepts as well as expanding the extent of indebted relations to include both human and nature entities.