Compassion and moral guidance

248 Pages·2013·1.85 MB·English

by  Bein, Steve

Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy 23
.
MONOGRAPH NO
Compassion
and Moral Guidance
STEVE BEIN
Compassion and Moral Guidance
The Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy
Monograph Series was started in 1974. Works are
published in the series that deal with any area of Asian
philosophy, or any other field of philosophy examined
from a comparative perspective. The aim of the series
is to make available scholarly works that exceed article
length, but may be too specialized for the general
reading public, and to make these works available
in inexpensive editions without sacrificing the
orthography of non-Western languages.
Monograph no. 23 | Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy
Compassion and
Moral Guidance
Steve Bein
University of Hawai‘i Press | Honolulu
© 2013 University of Hawai‘i Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
18 17 16 15 14 13 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bein, Steve, author.
Compassion and moral guidance / Steve Bein.
pages cm — (Monograph series / Society for Asian
and Comparative Philosophy; no. 23)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8248-3641-2 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Compassion. 2. Ethics, Comparative. 3. Self
(Philosophy) I. Title. II. Series: Monograph . . . of the
Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy; no. 23.
BJ1475.B45 2013
177'.7 — dc23 2012025445
University of Hawai‘i Press books are printed on acid-
free paper and meet the guidelines for permanence
and durability of the Council on Library Resources.
Designed by April Leidig
Printed by Integrated Book Technology Inc.
To Donald and Dorothy Bein,
who taught me compassion by living it.

contents
Abbreviations of Works Cited ix
Introduction xi
Chapter one
What Is Compassion, and What Is It Not? 1
chapter two
What Is the Com- of Compassion? 50
Chapter three
Defining Compassion 87
Chapter four
Objections to an Ethic of Compassion 132
Chapter five
Compassion in Action 151
Notes 183
Literature Cited 207
Index 219

Abbreviations of Works Cited
AE Nygren, Agape and Eros
Ak. Kant, Akademie-Ausgabe
BCV Śāntideva, The Bodhicaryāvātāra
DMW Prejean, Dead Man Walking
DZZ Dōgen, Dōgen Zenji Zenshū
E Rousseau, Emile
LY Confucius, The Analects (Lun Yü), trans. D. C. Lau
MDS (1–4) Dōgen, Master Dōgen’s Shōbōgenzō (vols. 1–4)
NE Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics
NS Scheler, The Nature of Sympathy
R Aristotle, Rhetoric
SZ Ejō, Shōbōgenzō Zuimonki
TTC Hall and Ames, Thinking Through Confucius
THN Hume, Treatise of Human Nature
TSZ Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra