Reflections on the formation of the individual: considerations about the idea of compassion

Abstract

This study aims to present and discuss some aspects of the concept of compassion in the philosophy of the Critical Theory of Society and in Greek tragedy, in an attempt to understand the meanings and forms attributed to it. The aim is to reach the aspects related to the dominant social formation, inquiring about how human relations are configurated, the process of sociability and the idea of experience. The text is divided as follows: a brief introduction of the topic based on some writings by Horkheimen and Adorno; a discussion of the ambiguities and contradictions attributed to the concept of compassion, presenting a few episodes in Greek tragedies in which the feeling of compassion appears. And finally we will discuss the aspects related to the dominant social formation in the context of mass society.