compassion

The present paper criticizes the current conditions imposed on poorer countries in their path to economic development, describes a number of cooperation models and presents a new conception of human development. It focuses on education for cooperative development. People's growth and development requires the preparation and training of those involved in the task. The education for cooperative development is approached from a moral perspective and, more specifically, from the perspective of education for compassion. Finally, a number of strategies geared toward this type of education are presented: communication, self-control, and moral discussion strategies that make those in charge of cooperation aware of other people's living conditions.

This article analyses the role of emotions in the moral of Horkheimer, Adorno and Levinas.  Several different answers are given to the question of whether moral action comes solely from reason, from emotion only, or on the contrary, it comes from both emotion and reason.

The present work shows a research on Horkheimer, Adorno and Levinas positions, these ones far away from the Kantian formalism. The materialistic ethic of those latter authors is summarized in four thematic core subjects: 1) Morality is resistance to the evil, 2) the moral impulse rises from experiencing victims suffering, from encountering the other, 3) the moral impulse takes the form of compassion and political compromise to change unfair social structures, and 4) Morality is memory.

 

Key Words: Morality, emotion, reason, victim, compassion, policy, education