ON COMPASSION: THE GOOD BEYOND VALUES
ON COMPASSION: THE GOOD BEYOND VALUES
Author(s): Topi HeikkeröSubject(s): Philosophical Traditions, Political Philosophy, Social Philosophy, Special Branches of Philosophy
Published by: Instytut Filozofii i Socjologii Polskiej Akademii Nauk i Fundacja Filozofia na Rzecz Dialogu
Keywords: Agape; compassion; René Descartes; Fyodor Dostoevsky; Mitleid; Friedrich Nietzsche; Jean-Jacques Rousseau; Arthur Schopenhauer; pity; values
Summary/Abstract: This paper is a dialogue that considers compassion as a grounding for ethics. Its ap-proach is thematic but it draws significantly from Arthur Schopenhauer’s account of compassion (Mitleid). In Schopenhauer’s thought, values (Werthe) are functions of a subject’s willing and therefore inevitably tied to an ego-centric viewpoint. Real ethics needs to find a good beyond subjective valuations. Schopenhauer finds an ethical phe-nomenon beyond values in Mitleid, “suffering-together,” compassion. Compassion is a pre-reflective benevolent feeling toward another’s suffering. Compassion can occur only if the ego-world duality is overcome at least to some extent. In this way compas-sion is a metaphysical sentiment.
Journal: Dialogue and Universalism
- Issue Year: 2017
- Issue No: 4
- Page Range: 189-201
- Page Count: 13
- Language: English