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World Suffering and Quality of LifeCompassion, Cruelty, and Human Rights

World Suffering and Quality of Life: Compassion, Cruelty, and Human Rights [The language of human rights provides a framework to begin to understand why pictures of strangers being beaten and tortured concern us. Cruelty, for instance, is understood as the infliction of unwarranted suffering. Compassion is an organized, public response to wrongdoing, as in human rights politics. Taking this language further, compassion is more than “just” sentiment; it is revolt against contempt, torture, humiliation and pain. It is an affirmation of humanity – the organized campaign to lessen the suffering of strangers – and a distinctly modern form of morality. The idea that the sight of suffering imposes a duty to ameliorate seems like a very old notion, but is, in fact, a very recent one. Traditional notions of modernization corrode compassion rather than increasing it or making it normal. Contemporary human rights politics start from the principle of human well-being and an imperative to prevent suffering wherever it occurs. Compassion and individuality do not have to contradict each other; public compassion emerges from democratization and market relationships. Human rights provides an important avenue to institutionalize compassion within global markets and relations.] http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png

World Suffering and Quality of LifeCompassion, Cruelty, and Human Rights

Part of the Social Indicators Research Series Book Series (volume 56)
Editors: Anderson, Ronald E.
Sznaider, Natan
World Suffering and Quality of Life — Jan 7, 2014
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References (26)

Publisher
Springer Netherlands
Copyright
© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015
ISBN
978-94-017-9669-9
Pages
55 –64
DOI
10.1007/978-94-017-9670-5_4
Publisher site
See Chapter on Publisher Site

Abstract

[The language of human rights provides a framework to begin to understand why pictures of strangers being beaten and tortured concern us. Cruelty, for instance, is understood as the infliction of unwarranted suffering. Compassion is an organized, public response to wrongdoing, as in human rights politics. Taking this language further, compassion is more than “just” sentiment; it is revolt against contempt, torture, humiliation and pain. It is an affirmation of humanity – the organized campaign to lessen the suffering of strangers – and a distinctly modern form of morality. The idea that the sight of suffering imposes a duty to ameliorate seems like a very old notion, but is, in fact, a very recent one. Traditional notions of modernization corrode compassion rather than increasing it or making it normal. Contemporary human rights politics start from the principle of human well-being and an imperative to prevent suffering wherever it occurs. Compassion and individuality do not have to contradict each other; public compassion emerges from democratization and market relationships. Human rights provides an important avenue to institutionalize compassion within global markets and relations.]

Published: Jan 7, 2014

Keywords: Human rights; Cruelty; Compassion; Modernization; Democratization; Market relationships

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