Compassion as the Highest Ethic (original) (raw)
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The role of compassion in moral actions
Most would think that compassion plays an important role whenever we perform moral actions such as saving a drowning child in the pool. The Chinese philosopher Mencius provides an example:
Introduction: The Moral Psychology of Compassion
At first sight, it is hard to imagine a full account of our moral and social lives that has nothing to say about compassion. The moral value of compassion is emphasized in many religious traditions; and many moral theorists have taken compassion to play a foundational role in our moral lives. Yet there is no agreed account of what compassion is. There is disagreement, too, about compassion's value – how, exactly, it might contribute to morally admirable or flourishing lives; what its limitations and dangers might be; and even whether it is important in our moral lives at all. Finally, assuming that compassion is morally valuable, we might wonder how it is to be cultivated. In this introduction, we shall sketch some of the background to these debates, before introducing the chapters that follow.
Recent years have seen a rapid growth in interest in the study of meditation and its health benefits, attention now broadening beyond simple relaxation techniques to other forms of meditation that involve the cultivation of positive mental states and emotions such as compassion. The scientific study of compassion suggests that compassion may be of crucial importance for our individual physical and psychological health. Moreover, because compassion relates fundamentally to how we as human beings relate to one another, its cultivation entails an ethical dimension that may be just as important as the medical and psychological dimension. In this article we supplement the emerging scientific literature on compassion by laying out a case for understanding compassion as a moral emotion intimately tied to the question of ethics and the cultivation of ethical sensibility. Second, we examine the individual and social benefits of compassion that support such a view. Thirdly, we describe in detail one method for the cultivation of compassion: Cognitively-Based Compassion Training (CBCT). We conclude by presenting current research programs employing CBCT and point to possible future directions in the study of compassion and its cultivation.
This paper is a discussion of the emotion of compassion or pity, and the corresponding virtue. It begins by placing the emotion of compassion in the moral conceptual landscape, and then moves to reject the currently dominant view, a version of Aristotelianism developed by Martha Nussbaum, in favour of a non-cognitive conception of compassion as a feeling. An alternative neo-Aristotelian account is then outlined. The relation of the virtue of compassion to other virtues is plotted, and some doubts sown about its practical significance.
A heuristic model of enactive compassion
Current Opinion in Supportive and Palliative Care, 2012
This article is an investigation of the possibility that compassion is not a discrete feature but an emergent and contingent process that is at its base enactive. Compassion must be primed through the cultivation of various factors. This article endeavors to identify interdependent components of compassion. This is particularly relevant for those in the end-of-life care professions, wherein compassion is an essential factor in the care of those suffering from a catastrophic illness or injury. The Halifax Model of Compassion is presented here as a new vision of compassion with particular relevance for the training of compassion in clinicians.
ON COMPASSION_AN INTRODUCTION.pdf
Kyprianidou, Ε. (2019) (ed. & introduction). The Art of Compassion. Athens: Nissos Publications, 2019
Compassion is present in every day life and discussions; references to compassion and empathy appear often in the mass media, political campaigns and in a wide range of studies concerning medical care, education, justice, psychotherapy, ethics, art theories and more. This introduction examines the sentimental basis and nature of compassion and attempts to clarify the related notions of empathy, sympathy and pity.
Normal Compassion: A Framework for Compassionate Decision Making
Journal of Business Ethics, 2014
ABSTRACT In this empirical paper, we present a model of the dynamic legitimizing processes involved in the receiving and giving of compassion. We focus on the idea of being ‘worthy of compassion’ and show how ideas on giving and receiving compassion are highly contestable. Recognition of a worthy recipient or giver of compassion constitutes a socially recognized claim to privilege, which has ethical managerial and organizational implications. We offer a model that assists managers in fostering ethical strength in their performance by encouraging reflection on the ethical complexity involved in compassion relations. The model emphasizes the dynamics of both the givers and receivers of compassion and so can also be used by organizations to both assess how others may view the legitimacy of their compassion relations and also to develop a positive organizational ethic of compassionate conduct.