Includes bibliographical references (pages 193-239) and index.
Preliminaries; Contents; Preface; Acknowledgements; 1 The politics of pity; 2 Taking sides; 3 The moral spectator; 4 The topic of denunciation; 5 The topic of sentiment; 6 The critique of sentimentalism; 7 The aesthetic topic; 8 Heroes and the accursed; 9 What reality has misfortune?; 10 How realistic is action?; Notes; Index.
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What is the morally acceptable response to images of starving children, bombed villages and mass graves brought to us by television? Luc Boltanski discusses the ways in which spectators have tried to respond to what they have seen and asks if there remains a place for pity in modern politics.