The Politics of Compassion

Michael Ure & Mervyn Frost (eds.), Politics of Compassion (London: Routledge), 2013

Political Studies, 2002

The place of compassion in political thought and practice is debatable. This debate can be clarified by stipulating ‘compassion’ as referring to the practice of acting on the feeling of ‘pity’; in addition, compassion might best be understood politically speaking as properly exercised towards vulnerability rather than suffering. Working with these understandings, I contrast Martha Nussbaum's account of the criteria for the exercise of compassion in modern democracies with the treatment of compassion in Toni Morrison's novels in order to suggest how compassion can be viewed politically. In respect of distributive justice and public policy, in both cases compassion might modify the strict application of principles in the light of knowledge of particulars, suggesting an enlarged role for discretion in the implementation of social justice. More generally, compassion's focus on particulars and the interpersonal draws attention to the importance of imagination and judgement. The latter returns a consideration of compassion to the question of the relationship of compassion to justice. In the political context, although strict criteria for compassion are inappropriate, principles of justice might work as modifying compassion (rather than vice-versa, as might be expected).

On realist terms, politics is about power, security, and order, and the question of whether politics can practice compassion is irrelevant. The author argues that a politics of compassion is possible and necessary in order to address human security needs. She extend debates on care ethics to develop a politics of compassion, using the example of asylum seekers to demonstrate that politics can practice compassion with (1) attentiveness to the needs of vulnerable people who are suffering, (2) an active listening to the voices of the vulnerable, and

Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, 2019

Journal of Psychology Research, 2018

Martha C. Nussbaum develops an idea of political compassion based on her cognitive theory of emotions and her normative theory of human development: the capabilities approach. She conceives compassion as a set of value judgements in the three areas: seriousness of loss, responsibility, and concern of others. Pointing out the possibility of rational examination of those three judgements, Nussbaum claims compassion to be a reasonable emotion. This gives way to understand compassion not only as a personal emotion but also as an institutional principle. The capability approach provides rational guidance in the three crucial areas of assessment. In virtue of this normative theory, Nussbaum discusses and rejects the ethical tradition of neglecting external goods as unimportant for human flourishing. Nussbaum argues that individual impulses of compassion that lead us to take care of material needs of others can be based on theoretical principles and inform institutions and political goals.

2017

The concept of compassion has recently held a controversial role in political thought. Critics have tied it with the condescension and latent self-interest of pity, while proponents have asserted it as the ethical posture from which to approach the suffering of others. This thesis looks at the role of compassion in the political sphere, arguing that political compassion involves a decentring of oneself as the primary subject of political action, looking instead to forego one's own desire and to replace it with the desire of another. It pays particular attention to the thought of Hannah Arendt, who excludes this self-sacrificing compassion from the political sphere, due to the importance of speech to political action, and in turn, the importance of muteness to compassion. To Arendt, political speech intends to performatively bring one's uniqueness into the world, whereas compassion performatively denies this subjectivity and is fundamentally unpolitical. She asserts that not only do public displays of compassion destroy their very value, but moreover, that a focus of compassion and suffering in the political sphere overshadows the need for cool, sober discourse between equals.

Journal of Social Policy, 2012

Current academic debate in the social sciences and humanities is revisiting the role of virtue in civic life. This debate is relevant to social policy. We argue that virtue is already an implicit component of policy debates, but that the virtue of compassion has not received sufficient emphasis. To support our argument we review classical and contemporary arguments regarding virtue and its linkage to the 'good society'; articulate the necessity of compassion and its application to specific policies areas (e.g., domestic violence, welfare, emergency care); and assess how compassion intersects with other virtues in the policy environment. Policy implications are identified including: recognition of the realities of suffering, the need for sufficient administrative infrastructure and trained professionals and an often long-term commitment to work in community settings. Weighing the risks, and the overall challenges of virtuous action, our analysis suggests compassion remains a compelling, yet under-utilised, basis for constructing and implementing policies.

Polity, 2020

What kind of moral and sentimental education should we pursue under non-ideal circumstances? In states characterized by high inequality and imperfect political institutions, scholars have increasingly turned their attention to the ethics of care and the politics of compassion. In response, critics have raised concerns that compassion is too weak to serve politically salutary goals. Drawing on the moral and political psychology of Emile, this paper shows that Rousseau relied on fear, anxiety, and amour-propre to extend compassion across class lines. Rousseau's account suggests that the proper development of compassion cannot do without these more "dangerous" allies, at least not in societies characterized by socioeconomic inequality. In addition to its contribution to Rousseau scholarship, the paper adds to the contemporary literature on moral sentiments by highlighting three psychologically plausible and previously unacknowledged strategies for extending compassion: fear of downward social mobility, religious anxiety, and pride.

Journal of Social Policy

Current academic debate in the social sciences and humanities is revisiting the role of virtue in civic life. This debate is relevant to social policy. We argue that virtue is already an implicit component of policy debates, but that the virtue of compassion has not received sufficient emphasis. To support our argument we review classical and contemporary arguments regarding virtue and its linkage to the 'good society'; articulate the necessity of compassion and its application to specific policies areas (e.g., domestic violence, welfare, emergency care); and assess how compassion intersects with other virtues in the policy environment. Policy implications are identified including: recognition of the realities of suffering, the need for sufficient administrative infrastructure and trained professionals and an often long-term commitment to work in community settings. Weighing the risks, and the overall challenges of virtuous action, our analysis suggests compassion remains a compelling, yet under-utilised, basis for constructing and implementing policies.

Ecologia-mondo e crisi del capitalismo: La fine della natura a buon mercato, 2023

Jason W. Moore, 2023. Come la classe dominante governa attraverso la natura, Ecologia-mondo e crisi del capitalismo: La fine della natura a buon mercato, Introduzione e cura di Gennaro Avallone (Verona: Ombre Corte, Seconda edizione), 25-42. Questo non è un libro sulla Natura. È un libro sul capitalismo, sui rapporti umani di potere e ri/produzione, e su come entrambi si sviluppano nella rete della vita. Esso parla di come la disuguaglianza senza precedenti tra gli esseri umani nel capitalismo sia resa possibile ed espressa attraverso un dominio senza precedenti – non dell’Uomo sulla Natura, ma della spinta del capitalismo a trasformare le reti della vita in opportunità di profitto (Amin 1991; Patel e Moore 2018). I testi che compongono questo libro parlano del carattere fondamentale del capitalismo, che non è né un sistema sociale né una logica economica – sebbene contenga questi momenti – ma è un modo di organizzare la vita planetaria. Questo è il nucleo della proposizione secondo cui il capitalismo è un’ecologia-mondo, che unisce dialetticamente l’accumulazione infinita di capitale, la ricerca patologica di potere e la coproduzione prometeica della vita planetaria (Moore 2015a). Da questo filo conduttore, come direbbe Marx, possiamo capire la crisi climatica odierna non come antropogenica (“fatta dall’uomo”), ma come capitalogenica (“fatta dal capitale”) (Moore 2022d). Da questa critica, possiamo iniziare a discernere le reti della vita planetaria e la potenziale solidarietà tra tutti i “lavoratori del mondo”, retribuiti e no, umani ed extra-umani. Solo allora possiamo iniziare a unire le “risorse della speranza” intellettuali necessarie per lanciare una sfida internazionalista alla dittatura biosferica della borghesia mondiale.