“Passione lodevole” o “virtù assai sospetta”? La compassione nella filosofia francese del XVII secolo

Résumé It

The conception of compassion in seventeenth-century France relies largely on ancient philosophy and on Christian thought. If it may vary in the detail according to the different schools of thought (Thomism, Augustinism, neo-stoism, Cartesianism), most of the time it is considered to be a passion, and rarely a virtue. Its morality is debated: some speak of a praiseworthy passion, while others deny it any moral value, whether they see it as a product of self-love or as a purely physiological reaction. Although it is understood as both a feeling (an affection suffered) and an action (actual help given to others), the distinction is not always clearly theorised. Finally, the term ‘compassion’ appears to be synonymous with ‘pity’ and often also with ‘mercy’.