In defending the teaching of compassion, I shall develop an account of compassion from which it can be seen that these objections make a certain amount of sense. On the view I shall sketch, there is an emotional element in compassion that can only be shaped by training. I hope to show that this is not the whole story, however, but that compassion also has a rational aspect, which can be studied philosophically. At present, let me merely note that most philosophers would reject the distinction between knowledge and value on which the above objections are based. Most philosophers believe that value can be studied rationally and objectively, using methods appropriate to the university and to the discipline.
Philosophical ethics is the rational study of moral value.
Most philosophers believe that some values can be shown to be superior, on rational grounds, to others. Consider the values of human dignity and equality. These are values that are incompatible with the ethnic hatred and violence that are reported almost daily in the news. They are, however, values almost universally agreed to, and advocated by, teachers of ethics. Contemporary moral philosophers believe that the values of human dignity and equality can be shown on rational grounds to be superior to the values that lie at the basis of class and ethnic conflict.