Is this an incoherent conception of compassion?

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Danzr
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Is this an incoherent conception of compassion?

Post by Danzr »

The German philosopher Schopenhauer says that when we experience compassion we participate in another's suffering, desiring their well being. Yet at some points he suggests that we experience another's suffering in another's body (not through our imagination); he states, we feel the suffering “in his person, not in ours” (In seiner Person, nicht in unserer).
Yet, at the same time, the compassionate person is aware that the other is the sufferer, not himself and he is also aware that the pain is the sufferers’ pain, not his: “we feel his pain as his, and do not imagine that it is ours” . The compassionate person “shares[s] the suffering in him (the sufferer), in spite of the fact that his skin does not enclose [his] nerves” (BM, p. 166).

Now I understand that Schop believes that compassion signifies the will qua thing-itself. The unity that exists beyond the empirical world. We have compassion for another because we are ultimately of the same essence. However, I don't think he really means that in compassion we actually feel another's suffering inside another persons body. Seems there is some grammatical confusion or something? I think he is also referencing Plato's notion of participation here...participation in a transcendent source.
Any comments on this interesting conception of compassion most welcome!
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Spiral Out
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Re: Is this an incoherent conception of compassion?

Post by Spiral Out »

I don't think it matters one way or another if the suffering is experienced as our own or as theirs. Compassion, or empathy, is simply the understanding of the particular condition of the other person and participating indirectly in the feeling of that particular condition. When we act as if the condition is ours then it translates into treating them as kindly as possible.
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Wilson
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Re: Is this an incoherent conception of compassion?

Post by Wilson »

I agree with Spiral Out that it doesn't matter. Certainly we feel another person's pain or sadness (and to a lesser degree his or her happiness) by experiencing those same emotions ourselves but of course we know intellectually that it isn't our own situation. And yet the emotions are fairly similar, just blunted.

I don't want to start a political discussion, but the current American president is an example of someone who is totally incapable of empathy and compassion. That's just a fact.
Alias
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Re: Is this an incoherent conception of compassion?

Post by Alias »

Danzr wrote:The German philosopher Schopenhauer says that when we experience compassion we participate in another's suffering, desiring their well being. Yet at some points he suggests that we experience another's suffering in another's body (not through our imagination); he states, we feel the suffering “in his person, not in ours” (In seiner Person, nicht in unserer).
It's logically complicated, but intuitively coherent. I think he'd got hold of the concept of mirror neurons before science had a method of demonstrating them.
http://www.apa.org/monitor/oct05/mirror.aspx
And i think he got this idea from the physical sensation of a stab in the gut, or blow to the solar plexus, or sinking feeling that one gets when witnessing a painful scene - even if it's only pretended, as on stage.
American rhetoric and entertainment have been aimed in very large part to desensitizing, dulling, jading these little organs - so overwhelming the sympathetic system with input as to render it inoperative; an endeavour that's achieved a high degree of success.
Nevertheless, it moves us. Still. Some.
Namelesss
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Re: Is this an incoherent conception of compassion?

Post by Namelesss »

Danzr wrote:The German philosopher Schopenhauer says that when we experience compassion we participate in another's suffering...
True Compassion is an unconditional Virtue of unconditional Love/Enlightenment!
Unconditional Love dissolves all boundaries, all distinctions, all limitations, all 'definition', all duality!
Thus, in such a state, we are truly One and share Consciousness/experience! I do not experience 'you', "We" simply experience Reality together, as One!
It has nothing to do with dualistic conditional ego/thought.

True, unconditional Love is ALWAYS Known by It's unconditional Virtues; Compassion, Empathy, Sympathy, Gratitude, Humility, Charity (Charity is never taking more than your share of anything, ever!), Honesty, Happiness, Faith...
ALWAYS!

“Your task is not to seek for Love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.” - Rumi

tat tvam asi
Jklint
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Re: Is this an incoherent conception of compassion?

Post by Jklint »

Compassion is the conduit from greater to lesser. We denote it as one of the prime manifestations of god toward humans which should be carried forward to other creatures that inhabit the same planet.
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Newme
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Re: Is this an incoherent conception of compassion?

Post by Newme »

One possible interpretation is that it takes some degree of both intrapersonal and interpersonal intelligence to realize that when we see someone who seems to be suffering as we have before, we can understand that they may be experiencing similarly but not identically to the way we suffered. We feel for them in the sense that it’s easy to imagine (by remembering) how they might feel. (The inherent tendency for empathy involves tribalism, shared humanity & survival with caregivers.) It suggests not just treating others as we’d like to be treated but more importantly treating others as they’d like to be treated. There’s relating in commonality while appreciating uniqueness.
“Empty is the argument of the philosopher which does not relieve any human suffering.” - Epicurus
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