BINGHAMTON, N.Y. — On a global scale, saving lives can be dazzlingly complex, involving international policy decisions to prepare for the next pandemic, manufacture drugs for neglected but serious diseases or provide healthcare to those in need. Tax structures, financing, corporate incentives — there’s a lot to weigh.
But at heart is something simple: Empathy. According to Nicole Hassoun, professor of philosophy at Binghamton University, State University of New York, we need to care about one another and let that care inform our societal decision-making.
In her new book, A Minimally Good Life: What We Owe to Others and What We Can Justifiably Demand, Hassoun argues that respect for our common humanity requires helping others live minimally good lives when doing so does not require sacrificing our own ability to live well enough. This, it suggests, provides a unified answer to the question of what we must give to, and can demand from, others as a basic minimum.
“I argue that we should put ourselves in each other’s shoes. You know the saying: ‘But for the grace of God go I,’” said Hassoun, a social and political philosopher and ethicist. “What if I had to live that life? What would I need to be okay as that person, with that psychology or history or circumstances?”
To understand someone else’s life, Hassoun argues, we must operate from a position of care; then, we begin to understand their needs, whether for food, shelter, education, healthcare, employment opportunities or respect. At its core, a good life requires a modicum of security: not fearing a roof collapse or whether you can afford car repairs, find a decent job or send your children to college.
“We should ask whether we would really be content to live each other person’s life in our society,” said Hassoun. “To be clear, this is different from asking each person directly what they need. The danger here is that people can be mistaken about their needs. Some get so used to poor conditions that they no longer strive to improve them. Others are so poorly off that they simply don’t understand that their conditions are poor in the first place. The thought is that having some distance from each person’s experience will help us see whether that person really needs all the things they think they need. We might likewise consider whether the person needs resources, opportunities, capabilities and so forth that they think they don’t need, but in fact do.”
Empathy builds community solidarity, in which people work together for common goals — something seen more readily in European countries with strong safety nets. Hassoun closes the book with an exploration of creative resolve: a fundamental commitment to overcoming tragedy whenever we can, in whatever way works.
“We face a lot of challenges in our time, from climate change to pandemics to war, and yet people have done the most amazing things,” she said.
A Minimally Good Life: What We Owe to Others and What We Can Justifiably Demand was published by Oxford Academic in July 2024.
A free chapter of the book is available to read online.
