Abstract
Feeling compassion is paradoxical. On the one hand, it is a fundamental dimension of human existence and not a peculiarity of the mind that one might or might not possess. On the other hand, experience teaches that compassion can be dangerous and irrational, and this is why in philosophy compassion often has a bad name. A foundational analysis of the roots of compassion is therefore needed and also presented. This leads to a further application of Emmanuel Housset’s creative contribution on compassion (“pitié” in French) to the field of medical ethics. Several examples of the integration of compassion are presented, as they are typical for healthcare locally and globally. At the end, a link with the upcoming “ethics of care” movement is made, as also with the notion of compassionate care.
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Further Readings
Housset, E. (2003). L’intelligence de la pitié: Phénoménologie de la communauté. Paris: Cerf.
Rhodes, P. (1976). The value of medicine. London: Allen & Unwin.
Nussbaum, M. (2001). Upheavals of thought. The intelligence of emotions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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Schotsmans, P. (2016). Compassion. In: ten Have, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Global Bioethics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09483-0_112
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09483-0_112
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