The present paper explores “the importance of what we care about” from a phenomenological angle in the spirit of Frankfurt’s seminal essay. I shall reflect upon a few of its central concepts and issues within a Husserlian frame of analysis. My overarching claim is that Frankfurt’s threefold distinction – knowing, ethical conduct, caring – is equally central to Husserl’s phenomenology of reason and, more directly, underlies Husserl’s phenomenological ethics of values and vocation in his Freiburg manuscripts of the 1920s and 1930s.

The present paper explores “the importance of what we care about” from a phenomenological angle in the spirit of Frankfurt’s seminal essay. I shallreflect upon a few of its central concepts and issues within a Husserlian frame of analysis. My overarching claim is that Frankfurt’s threefold distinction – knowing,ethical conduct, caring – is equally central to Husserl’s phenomenology of reason and, more directly, underlies Husserl’s phenomenological ethics of values andvocation in his Freiburg manuscripts of the 1920s and 1930s.

The present paper explores “the importance of what we care about” from a phenomenological angle in the spirit of Frankfurt’s seminal essay. I shall reflect upon a few of its central concepts and issues within a Husserlian frame of analysis. My overarching claim is that Frankfurt’s threefold distinction – knowing, ethical conduct, caring – is equally central to Husserl’s phenomenology of reason and, more directly, underlies Husserl’s phenomenological ethics of values and vocation in his Freiburg manuscripts of the 1920s and 1930s.