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  3. Distant Suffering
  • Cited by 1058
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    • Publisher:
      Cambridge University Press
      Publication date:
      September 2009
      October 1999
      ISBN:
      9780511489402
      9780521573894
      9780521659536
      DOI:
      https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511489402
      Dimensions:
      (228 x 152 mm)
      Weight & Pages:
      0.56kg, 266 Pages
      Dimensions:
      (228 x 152 mm)
      Weight & Pages:
      0.4kg, 268 Pages
      • Subjects:
      Sociology: General Interest, Sociology
      Series:
      Cambridge Cultural Social Studies
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    • Selected: Digital
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    Subjects:
    Sociology: General Interest, Sociology
    Series:
    Cambridge Cultural Social Studies
    Information

    Book description

    Distant Suffering, first published in 1999, examines the moral and political implications for a spectator of the distant suffering of others as presented through the media. What are the morally acceptable responses to the sight of suffering on television, for example, when the viewer cannot act directly to affect the circumstances in which the suffering takes place? Luc Boltanski argues that spectators can actively involve themselves and others by speaking about what they have seen and how they were affected by it. Developing ideas in Adam Smith's moral theory, he examines three rhetorical 'topics' available for the expression of the spectator's response to suffering: the topics of denunciation and of sentiment and the aesthetic topic. The book concludes with a discussion of a 'crisis of pity' in relation to modern forms of humanitarianism. A possible way out of this crisis is suggested which involves an emphasis and focus on present suffering.

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