Abstract

This thematic study focuses especially on the role that suffering plays in the practice of philosophy. It identifies and interprets the basic structures and possibilities related to the experience of suffering; and, it examines some of the significant historical contributions that have influenced our thinking about this issue. ;It begins by developing a preliminary definition of suffering. After which, it seeks and examines those same basic structures in the contributions of Plato, Augustine, Spinoza, Nietzsche, and Heidegger---each in their own chapters. ;The study of Plato centers on suffering conceived in terms of eros, with particular attention paid to that suffering at the crucial intersection of the sensible and the intelligible. ;The study of Augustine focuses on suffering conceived in terms of the tension between the human and the divine. The role of suffering in Christianity is summarized, and Augustine's personal example is employed as an illustration. The contrast between the sufferings of Job and those of Jesus are explored briefly with respect to the question of results. ;The studies of Spinoza and Nietzsche are combined in the same chapter because they both naturalize suffering. In Spinoza, the focus is on his analysis of how human beings rise above their passivity through an increase in their active power of understanding. In Nietzsche, the call for an even greater suffering is analyzed. ;The study of Heidegger examines suffering in both his earlier works and later works . Heidegger's insensitivity to the suffering of the Holocaust is also discussed. ;The conclusion examines the contemporary perspective of James R. Watson's Between Auschwitz and Tradition, and then speculates on what is called for today in terms of thinking and suffering. It argues that thought needs to acknowledge its bodily dwelling, confront its limitations, and open itself to that which is 'other.' In the face of all the resistances, thinking today needs to be suffering