Published: 2018-08-181

Compassion in the Thought of Rousseau, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche

Paweł Pieniążek
Humanities and Natural Sciences
Section: Articles
https://doi.org/10.31648/hip.421

Abstract

The philosophical tradition negatively judged the ethical value o f compassion. Rousseau and Schopenhauer attached the highest ethical importance to it and made it the basis of morality. Nietzsche criticizes the compassion. He sees in it a manifestation of egoism and of degenerated will to power and links it to envy. Yet he gives it a cultural meaning and sees in it the basis o f modern ethical vulnerability. The aim of the article is to present the above thinkers’ views on compassion, to show their difficulties and evolution.

Keywords:

compassion, pity, suffering, selflessness, egoism, envy, culture

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Pieniążek, P. (2018). Compassion in the Thought of Rousseau, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche. Humanities and Natural Sciences, (21), 245–262. https://doi.org/10.31648/hip.421

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