Approaches to COVID-19: bioethics, empathy and the Spinozian perspective

Abstract

COVID-19 is a sanitary and humanitarian crisis featured among the greatest pandemics humanity has ever known. This article highlights its syndemic character, taken on by encountering populations with greater economic, social, and environmental vulnerability. Before such contexts, the essay proposes an ontological reflection about the human being and how moral enhancement can facilitate empathetic dialogues that generate national and international solidary solutions during pandemic crises. For this purpose, it draws upon the concepts of syndemic, bioethics, ontology, moral enhancement, facilitator, dialogue, dialectics, empathy, conatus, affections, appetite, desire, and continuum and their potential for reducing harm during COVID-19. Finally, this paper will conclude with a brief discussion based on Spinoza’s rationalist perspective.