A natureza da compaixão em Schopenhauer: mistério e cotidiano

Abstract

This work undertakes a study on the nature and moral significance of human actions by the Arthur Schopenhauer’s thought. It is an investigation of the schopenhauerian compassion ethics whose main objective is to highlight the differences and particularities of the metaphysical and mysterious aspects of the compassionate act in relation to compassion as something empirical, everyday or even as a planned action. After a brief exposition of central elements of the metaphysics of the will and metaphysics of the ethics of the Frankfurt philosopher, we try to support the following hypothesis: if Schopenhauer proposed an analysis of the moral and the original ethical phenomenon (compassion) -especially in The world as will and representation - by the metaphysical prism of an action that can be described as immediate and sudden, he also presented the phenomenon of such compassion -notably in some paragraphs of On the basis of morality - under an empirical bias, which even admits the need for considerations with which, only after discussions, for example, it is decided whether or not to carry out a compassionate action. We have shown that these less mysterious aspects of compassion can be noted above all in the virtues of justice and charity, degrees of compassion, or actions derived from it. But we also point out that because of the inclusion of irrational animals in the foundation of morality, textual elements such as praise and support of the thinker to Animal Protective Societies can illustrate the mediate and active face of compassion. For if it is out of compassion that one creates a charitable or protective organization for suffering persons or animals, surely compassion as a mysterious and immediate phenomenon, taken strictly in terms of “the great mystery of ethics”, would not be enough to move and maintain the action until its final realization. It would also be necessary to recognize the active role of the intellect as a mediator of motives and actions. With this reasoning, we analyze Schopenhauer’s compassion in its ambivalent nature: on the one hand, it would be mysterious and mystical, on the other, empirical, “practical” and verified in everyday life.