This is an ambitious book. Steve Bein aims to develop an ethic(s) of compassion: not merely ethic(s) about compassion, that is, but an ethical system based on compassion. (It seems that the author does not intend to make a clear distinction between “ethic” and “ethics,” as he seems to use the two terms interchangeably; although “ethic” is more frequently used in the book, it seems that he uses it in the sense of ethics, an ethical system.) In addition to a short introduction, the book consists of five chapters; the first two are more historical and the last three more constructive.
In the first chapter, entitled “What Is Compassion and What Is It Not?,” Bein examines some ideas related to compassion, such as pity, love, and sympathy, among others, in such historical figures as Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, Hume, Rousseau, Scheler, and Nietzsche (although not in this order), as well as...
