This paper starts by examining the language used in some well known scriptural passages where the importance of mercy or compassion is stressed. Such passages underline the ethical importance of a direct, physically and emotionally involved response. This leads on to a critique of the shortcomings of approaches to ethics which advocate the impersonal promotion of welfare; our lives as ethical beings depend intimately on the immediate responses arising from our encounters with others in our day-to-day lives. The paper then further explores the special status of loving kindness and mercy in the Judaeo-Christian tradition, and argues that secular ethical systems, whether grounded in human nature or in the supposed requirements of rationality, are unlikely to be able to underwrite this kind of status. The final section reflects further on the ‘cosmic’ significance of love in a theistic worldview.

中文翻译：

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慈悲慈悲：对人类和宇宙的意义

本文首先研究了一些著名的经文段落中使用的语言，这些段落强调了怜悯或同情的重要性。这样的段落强调了直接的、身体上和情感上的反应的伦理重要性。这导致了对提倡非个人促进福利的伦理方法的缺陷的批评；作为有道德的人，我们的生活密切依赖于我们在日常生活中与他人相遇时所产生的直接反应。然后，本文进一步探讨了慈悲慈悲在犹太-基督教传统中的特殊地位，并认为世俗的伦理体系，无论是基于人性还是基于所谓的理性要求，都不太可能支持这种状态。