Suffering – a premise for the social and political thought

What is it about?

This essay proposes a critical investigation of the notion of suffering as a premise and warning for the Social and Political domains. Drawing from the writings of the contemporary French philosophers Levinas, Marion, Ricoeur and Blanchot, comprising a corpus I refer to as “The Ethics of Suffering”, it treats this issue in four stages of analysis: terminological, phenomenological, ethical and political. The phenomenological analysis first reveals the tension resulting from the double nature of “Suffering”, defined both as a feeling and a long lasting condition with its six fundamental components. This duality leads then to question our social ability to simply apply suffering based on the fact that it is widespread and known to all, showing that the lack of a permanent substance or single essence causes its political prevention or propagation to remain totally arbitrary. On this account, the positive outcome of the ethical and phenomenological investigations consists in offering a standard ground for bridging between individual and social suffering while sustaining the tension coming from its dual nature. At the same time, their definition of suffering as a basis for solidarity (suffering is always ‘suffering with the others’) while insisting on the solitary mode of torment reveals a problematic double bind. Taking up the work of Adi Ophir on the evil, the essay goes as far as showing how this double bind affects the political thought and action, when exposing its rather limited power of manipulating the human threshold and using suffering as a political instrument. The paper thus seeks to contribute to the social and political discussion by examining our ability to regulate our conduct in the public and the political spheres through the understanding of suffering and by inquiring whether we can actually protect ourselves and cope with the danger of controlling individuals through the control of their suffering.

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Why is it important?

This paper aims to provide a theoretical basis for the body of investigation and action in the domains of Social Suffering and the Political. When defining a concept, it is necessary to elaborate a workable and systematic conception of the notion in question. At the same time, “Suffering” is a term that cannot be identified with one thing as it reflects both a condition and a feeling. It is therefore a misconception to think that our social and political life can apply it directly, based on the ubiquity and seemingly obvious character of the phenomenon of suffering. In this respect, I argue that knowing suffering also comprises not knowing it entirely. To understand the reasons supporting this claim, we need to look into phenomenological, ethical and political fields of activity as the difficulties to determine the essence of suffering and the human threshold of bearing suffering are not solely conceptual. Moreover, due to its dual nature it is impossible to attribute to the phenomenon of suffering a permanent substance and thus, without this single reference point, the mechanisms of its prevention or propagation always remain arbitrary. In other words, no directed systematization can fully control suffering or control the individual and the collective through suffering, on the basis of the widespread nature of human agony.

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