In the previous chapters we have concisely presented presence theory – its content, its groundedness in the practising of presence and its reception. This and the following chapter contain a more general discussion of the construction of knowledge. Presence theory was developed as a means of understanding and accounting for the practising of presence and why it works so well. While developing this theory, we dealt with a multitude of empirical, theoretical and methodological issues. These issues merit a separate discussion which places them in the general framework of how knowledge is constructed within empirical ethics, especially empirical care ethics, and which develops them further, in interaction with developments in other disciplines. The objective of academic research – whether conceptual, empirical or both – is to gain understanding that enables us to come to terms with reality, to act in cases where it is not obvious how we should act, to account for what has been done and to discard ideas that are less helpful. This chapter deals with care ethics, empirical research in ethics, theory development and knowledge construction; the following chapter deals with complex theorising, practice theory and, again, knowledge construction. These two chapters are the preliminary result of a process of thinking about empirical ethics of care that we engaged in together with Frans Vosman, who, unfortunately, died in June 2020; and it is the basis of what we call ‘empirically grounded (normative) ethics of care’ (Timmerman, 2010; Timmerman and Vosman, 2014; Vosman et al, 2018; Timmerman, 2018; Vosman, 2018; Timmerman et al, 2019; Baart, 2020; Timmerman and Baart, 2021). These two chapters lay the groundwork for the presentation, in Chapter 7, of what we call ‘the presence-theoretical perspective’ and its theorems, a further development of the presence theory, which transcends it without replacing it.

The turn to everyday life

An essential element of the practising of presence is a radical turn to particularity. This turn is motivated by two concerns. First, it matters to the professional who practises presence that the care receiver is this particular person, in this particular relational network, in this particular situation, in this particular period of their lives, in this particular context.