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When Strangers Call: A Consideration of Care, Justice, and Compassion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2020

Chris Frakes
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Abstract

How ought we to respond to strangers in imminent need? Many people suggest that we need justice to temper the partiality of care. In this paper I argue that neither care nor justice adequately motivates attention to the suffering of strangers. Rather, a different virtue, compassion grounded in equanimity, is required. I demonstrate that the virtue of compassion allows the agent to sustain her engagement with suffering strangers without sacrificing her own flourishing.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Hypatia , Volume 25 , Issue 1: Special Issue: FEAST I: Current Work in Feminist Ethics and Social Theory , Winter 2010 , pp. 79 - 99
Copyright
Copyright © 2010 by Hypatia, Inc.

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