Abstract
For whatever reasons suffering appears to be a condition of human existence, it is at least a condition visible to us in many forms. What is more, human suffering may well be on the increase. In 1991, James Grant (cited in Moeller 1999, p. 8), then executive director of UNICEF, made the following assertion in the context of recent natural disasters, diseases and wars: ‘these really are the most severe set of problems one can remember coming at one time since the end of World War II.’ Fast forward 25 years to the present day. We too live in times dominated by suffering caused by natural disasters, conflicts and disease.
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Notes
- 1.
My focus in this book is specifically on compassion as a human property in relation to other humans. I, therefore, am not seeking to make any claims about whether compassion is possible, or otherwise, towards other animals or for other categories, such as the environment.
- 2.
In February 2016, the Australian High Court upheld the constitutionality of detaining asylum seekers offshore (Hurst and Doherty 2016).
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Peterson, A. (2017). Introduction. In: Compassion and Education. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-54838-2_1
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