Naslov
Compassion and the question of evil as Martha Nussbaum's philosophical viewpoint

Autori
Kolednjak, Marijana

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Sažeci sa skupova, sažetak, ostalo

Izvornik
DER/DIE/DAS BÖSE. Theologische, religions- und kulturwissenschaftliche Perspektiven zu Repräsentationen und Definitionen des Bösen / - Klagenfurt : KPHE Kärnten, 2013

Skup
Forum Junge Theologie

Mjesto i datum
Maria Saal, Austrija, 05.09.2013. - 07.09.2013

Vrsta sudjelovanja
Predavanje

Vrsta recenzije
Nije recenziran

Ključne riječi
emotions; compassion; evil; values; patriotism; cosmopolitanism; Aristotle; Martha Craven Nussbaum

Sažetak
Martha Craven Nussbaum is a renowned American philosopher. The framework of her philosophy is the constitution of a universal system of values which will promote the equality of opportunities for all people to realize their abilities as human beings. Philosophy is the art whose tools are arguments, the art in which an important role is played by precise thinking, logical rigor and precision of definitions. Do philosophers, as philosophers have a responsibility to relate to suffering and injustice? Are the methods of philosophy suited to address social and political topic? She is a thinker who answers this questions in the affirmative. Ethical norms are that what is quite independent of human beings, human life, and human desires. Thus, any connection between our interests and the true good is entirely contingent. Ethical research consists of discovering the permanent truth about the values and norms, the truths as they are regardless of what we are, what we want, and we do. Nussbaum finds support for her view with the Stoics, Epicureans and Skeptics that philosophy is a way of understanding and attempting to heal human suffering. In all situations of choice, we face a question that Martha Nussbaum calls "the obvious question": what shall we do? But sometimes we also face, or should face, a different question, which she calls "the tragic question": is any of the alternatives open to us free from serious moral wrongdoing? Discussing cases of tragic conflict from literature, philosophy, and contemporary life, Nussbaum argues that it is valuable to face the tragic question where it is pertinent, because facing it helps us think how we might design a society where such unpalatable choices do not confront people, or confront them less often. Cost‐benefit analysis helps us answer the obvious question ; but it does not help us either pose or answer the tragic question, and it frequently obscures the presence of a tragic situation, by suggesting that the obvious question is the only pertinent question. We think there’s something evil about experiencing emotion in connection with works of art. The result is that we become narrow minded and ungenerous. We have a strict moral conscience but little sympathy with others, says Martha Nussbaum. Aristotle's and Nussbaum's Account of Compassion By far the most influential account of compassion has been that presented by Aristotle in the Rhetoric. That account has been defended, in revised form, in the most sustained examination of compassion of recent times, that of Nussbaum, primarily in her Upheavals of Thought. Nussbaum’s discussion contains many insights. Aristotle defines compassion – eleos is the Greek word for this emotion – as follows: "Let compassion be a sort of distress at an apparent evil, destructive or distressing, which happens to someone who doesn’t deserve it, and which one might expect to happen to oneself or someone close to one, and this when it appears near." Nussbaum finds in Aristotle’s definition three "cognitive requirements" of compassion: 1. The seriousness requirement. The evil in question must be seen as significant rather than trivial. 2. The desert requirement. The evil must be seen as undeserved. 3. The similar possibilities requirement. The evil must be something which the person experiencing compassion might expect to befall herself or someone close to her. 1.The seriousness requirement. "We do not", Nussbaum suggests, "go around pitying someone who has lost a trivial item, such as a toothbrush or a paper clip, or even an important item that is readily replaceable." 2.Now for the desert requirement. Nussbaum claims that, in so far as we think a person’s plight is her own fault, we will blame them rather than feel compassion. Compassion, that is to say, essentially involves the thought that the other has not brought the evil that is now afflicting her upon herself. 3.The similar possibilities requirement rests on the link Aristotle postulates between compassion and fear, claiming that "what people fear for themselves they feel compassion for when it happens to others."

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Engleski

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