Can compassion ground morality?
Read On the Basis of Morality through motives, visible actions and attention to other beings.
An original introduction. This guide accompanies the work; it is neither the complete text nor a translation.
One action, different motives
Two people may help identically, one seeking admiration and the other directly concerned by suffering. Compare consequences and motives without assuming observers can always distinguish them. Schopenhauer places the problem of moral value within that difference.
Crossing the boundary of self-interest
Compassion makes another being’s pain directly relevant to action without imagining future reward. Ask how concern can extend to strangers and animals, and what limitations emotion encounters when circumstances are distant or difficult to represent.
Testing the foundation
Compassionate motivation may explain why to act, but does it determine what to do? Poorly informed assistance can worsen a problem. Compare the moral motive with knowledge of circumstances, respect for persons and the practical effectiveness of intervention.
Compassion initiates moral attention; applying it also requires understanding circumstances and examining consequences.
Your turn to think.
- Can an action without compassionate feeling still possess moral worth?
- How can concern avoid favoring only those who resemble us?
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