Nature of Compassion: A Philosophical Analysis

This book unravel the nature of Compassion by looking at the following set of question in relation to the Western (Aristotle, Aquinas and Nussbaum) and Indian philosophy (Buddhism and Sikhism); Is compassion the same as or distinct from pity, sympathy/empathy, love and benevolence?, Does compassion involves pain and sorrow?, or, ‘Does the compassionate subject suffer with same intensity the sufferer himself suffers?, ‘Is compassion only a response towards serious suffering, or it is also a response towards non-serious suffering?, ‘How does the compassionate subject make a relationship with the sufferer?, Is compassion a virtue or an emotion?, Is compassion a part of human instinct or is it learnt through practice?, Is there or can there be one universal understanding of the term compassion?