Book contents
- In the Cause of Humanity
- Human Rights in History
- In the Cause of Humanity
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I Interventionism and Humanitarianism under the Sign of Internationalism
- 1 The Nineteenth Century as the Age of Internationalism
- 2 Intervention as a Corrective in International Politics
- 3 The Rise of the Humanitarian Sensibility and the Emergence of Humanitarianism
- Part II The Struggle against the Atlantic Slave Trade and the Emergence of a Humanitarian Understanding of Intervention
- Part III Humanitarian Intervention and Its Solidification as an Imperial and Colonial Practice
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
3 - The Rise of the Humanitarian Sensibility and the Emergence of Humanitarianism
from Part I - Interventionism and Humanitarianism under the Sign of Internationalism
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 November 2021
- In the Cause of Humanity
- Human Rights in History
- In the Cause of Humanity
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I Interventionism and Humanitarianism under the Sign of Internationalism
- 1 The Nineteenth Century as the Age of Internationalism
- 2 Intervention as a Corrective in International Politics
- 3 The Rise of the Humanitarian Sensibility and the Emergence of Humanitarianism
- Part II The Struggle against the Atlantic Slave Trade and the Emergence of a Humanitarian Understanding of Intervention
- Part III Humanitarian Intervention and Its Solidification as an Imperial and Colonial Practice
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Addressing the question of the movements in the history of ideas that gave rise to such a novel conception of intervention, Chapter 3 considers the intellectual origins of humanitarianism. Beginning in the mid-eighteenth century, various religious, philosophical and literary currents combined to mould a humanitarian sensibility, under the influence of which people developed empathy for their fellow human beings and took active measures to relieve the suffering of others across national and even continental divides. Rather than building their campaigns on a discourse of rights, civil society groups appealed instead to the idea of ‘humanity’, thereby making it a key normative reference in both national and international politics.
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- In the Cause of HumanityA History of Humanitarian Intervention in the Long Nineteenth Century, pp. 39 - 46Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021
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