Philosopher Elizabeth Spelman explores the subtleties that happen when we try to make sense of suffering. She traces the complex ways in which we try to redeem pain, showing in startling light how compassion may mask condescension, and how identifying with another's pain often slips into illicit appropriation.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Library Journal
Those who expect philosophy to be incisively analytic or synoptically profound will be disappointed by these reprints or later versions of five 1991-97 essays, together with a 13-page introduction and a 16-page conclusion in which little is concluded. Spelman herself regards the book as consisting of "patently cursory observations" about our everyday talk about sufferers and the meaning of their suffering. Unfortunately, cursory rather than keen observations are not philosophy. Whatever seems philosophical in the book is a summary of what other people have written (e.g., Plato, Aristotle, and Gabriele Taylor); likewise the sociologically interesting material about women and slaves, which includes references to work by female slaves themselves. Spelman's writing is diffuse and often sloppy. A book to be ignored.?Robert Hoffman, York Coll., CUNY
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
Fruits of Sorrow is a rare book. It recasts an important human concern in illuminating, memorable, and constructive terms. Spelman reframes enduring debates over human suffering by asking whose suffering gets attention, by whom, and for what purposes. . . . With elegance, honesty, and integrity, Spelman reveals the eerie proximities of compassion and domination, empathy and appropriation. Fruits of Sorrow is a crucial guide for any accidental traveler in the domain of thinking, feeling, and caring. —Martha Minow, professor of law, Harvard Law School
"Spelman has written a genuine and perceptive book." —Publishers Weekly
"Fruits of Sorrow points the way toward forms of moral engagement that combine intensity of commitment with complexity, openness, vulnerability and deeper levels of understanding." —Paul Rosenberg, Fall Book Quarterly --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
"Spelman has written a genuine and perceptive book." —Publishers Weekly
"Fruits of Sorrow points the way toward forms of moral engagement that combine intensity of commitment with complexity, openness, vulnerability and deeper levels of understanding." —Paul Rosenberg, Fall Book Quarterly --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
clear treatment of suffering,
By A Customer
This review is from: Fruits of Sorrow: Framing Our Attention to Suffering (Paperback)
Spelman writes a clear (but brief) treatment of the philosophy of suffering. By connecting Plato to slave narratives to AIDS discourse, Spelman convinces the disinterested reader of the value of a feminist philosophy of suffering.
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