Synopses & Reviews
Images of starving children, bombed villages and mass graves brought to us by television in the comfort of our homes implicitly call on us to act. What can we do when the suffering we see is so distant and we feel powerless compared with the forces behind the suffering? Luc Boltanski examines the ways in which, since the end of the eighteenth century, spectators have tried to respond acceptably to what they have seen, and discusses whether there remains a place for pity in modern politics.
Synopsis
Considers morally acceptable response to images of war, famine etc. brought to us by television.
Synopsis
What is the morally acceptable response to images of starving children, bombed villages and mass graves brought to us by television? Luc Boltanski discusses the ways in which spectators have tried to respond to what they have seen and asks if there remains a place for pity in modern politics.
Table of Contents
Part I. The Question of the Spectator: 1. The politics of pity; 2. Taking sides; 3. The moral spectator; Part II. The Topics of Suffering: 4. The topic of denunciation; 5. The topic of sentiment; 6. The critique of sentimentalism; 7. The aesthetic topic; 8. Heroes and the accursed; Part III. The Crisis of Pity: 9. What reality has misfortune?; 10. How realistic is action?