Empathy with humanity : On the genealogy of humanitarianism, possibilities and conditions

The question of how "humanitarianism" became possible, and whether humanitarianism is a factor of power in today's world, and possible in the future, is answered against the backdrop of the problem of the world's moral indifference, and the difficulty of mobilizing empathy and commitment to other people's suffering in humanitarian disasters. A genealogical discourse analysis examines historical breakthroughs for humanitarianism, and how humanitarianism relates to human rights, in a moral-philosophical and sociological perspective, in a historical exposition, with the aim of tracing violations and leaps in the development of conditions and possibilities, which enabled the construction of a discourse of humanitarianism. Important prerequisites for humanitarianism to become possible, and the ideas of human rights, are a changed view of man during enlightenment, and her self-understanding, as an "ethical subject", as ground to rights, and that "humanity" was imagined to be a legal community that entails a moral responsibility of universal solidarity. A discourse of humanitarianism has been constructed which has become a factor of power in international politics to meet needs, that it costs to deviate from. A danger to the future is that humanitarianism, as an active protest against the world's suffering, is politicized and abused as a pretext for power ambitions. Whether humanitarianism is possible depends on the social and moral preconditions of international cooperation and idealism, and the belief that human progression is possible, and the attitude: ”We become more fully human via the manner in which we treat our fellows”