Pity
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Pity is a
is pity directed towards oneself.Two different kinds of pity can be distinguished, "benevolent pity" and "contemptuous pity".[1] In the latter, through insincere, pejorative usage, pity connotes feelings of superiority, condescension, or contempt.[2]
Psychological opinions
Psychologists see pity arising in early
Psychoanalysis sees a more convoluted route to (at least some forms of) adult pity by way of the sublimation of aggression—pity serving as a kind of magic gesture intended to show how leniently one should oneself be treated by one's own conscience.[4]
Religious views
In the West, the religious concept of pity was reinforced after acceptance of Judeo-Christian concepts of God pitying all humanity, as found initially in the Jewish tradition: "Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him" (Psalms 103:13). The Hebrew word hesed translated in the Septuagint as eleos carries the meaning roughly equivalent to pity in the sense of compassion, mercy, and loving-kindness.[6]
In Mahayana Buddhism, Bodhisattvas are described by the Lotus Sutra as those who "hope to win final Nirvana for all beings—for the sake of the many, for their weal and happiness, out of pity for the world".[7]
Philosophical assessments
Jean-Jacques Rousseau had the following opinion of pity as opposed to love for others:
It is therefore certain that pity is a natural sentiment, which, by moderating in every individual the activity of self-love, contributes to the mutual preservation of the whole species. It is this pity which hurries us without reflection to the assistance of those we see in distress; it is this pity which, in a state of nature, stands for laws, for manners, for virtue, with this advantage, that no one is tempted to disobey her sweet and gentle voice: it is this pity which will always hinder a robust savage from plundering a feeble child, or infirm old man, of the subsistence they have acquired with pain and difficulty, if he has but the least prospect of providing for himself by any other means: it is this pity which, instead of that sublime maxim of argumentative justice, Do to others as you would have others do to you, inspires all men with that other maxim of natural goodness a great deal less perfect, but perhaps more useful, Consult your own happiness with as little prejudice as you can to that of others."[12]
Medieval conceptions
The many senses of the compound notion are exemplified by how Erasmus'
Chaucer's line, described by Walter Skeat as being Chaucer's favourite, was understood by Edgar Finley Shannon to be a translation of Ovid's Tristia volume 3, verses 31–32, Shannon describing it as "an admirable translation and adaptation of the passage".[15]: 68 A noble mind ("mens generosa" in Ovid, "gentil herte" in Chaucer) is easily moved ("faciles motus capit" in Ovid, "renneth soone" in Chaucer) to kindness ("plababilis irae" in Ovid "pite" in Chaucer).[15]: 68–69 In the Legend, Chaucer describes women in general as "pyëtous".[18]: 32
It wasn't until the 16th century that there was a fully-fledged split between pity and piety.[19] In the 14th century, John Gower was, in contrast, using "pite" in his Confessio Amantis to encompass both concepts, as his Latin glosses to the text reveal, stating that "pite is the foundement of every kinges regiment".[16]: 118–119 Cognates of the word include the Provençal "pietat" and the Spanish "piedad".[17]: 73 Like Middle English, Old French took the word from the Latin and gradually split it into "pité" (later "piété") and "pitié".[16]: 118 [20] Italian in contrast retained the one word: "pietà", borrowed into English (through French, in the 19th century replacing its older "Vierge de pitié") as a technical concept in the arts: pietà.[16]: 118 [20]
Literary examples
- Juvenal considered pity the noblest aspect of human nature.[21]
- Mystic poet William Blake was ambivalent about pity, initially casting it in a negative role, before viewing pity as an emotion that can draw beings together. In The Book of Urizen pity begins when Los looks on the body of Urizen bound in chains.[22]: 13.50–51 However, Pity furthers the fall, "For pity divides the soul",[22]: 13.53 dividing Los and Enitharmon (Enitharmon is named Pity at her birth). Blake maintained that Pity disarmed righteous indignation leading to action; and, railing further against Pity in The Human Abstract, Blake exclaims: "Pity would be no more, / If we did not make somebody Poor" (1–2).
- J. R. R. Tolkien made pity—that of the hobbits for Gollum—pivotal to the action of The Lord of the Rings:[23] "It was Pity that stayed his hand... the pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many".[24]
- Wilfred Owen prefaced his collection of war poetry with the claim that "My subject is War and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity"[25]—something C. H. Sisson considered to verge on sentimentality.[26]
See also
- Animism – Religious belief that objects, places, and creatures all possess a distinct spiritual essence
- Compassion – Moved or motivated to help others
- Dignity – Person's right to be valued, respected and treated ethically
- Empathy – Capacity to understand or feel what another person is experiencing
- Moral emotions – Variety of social emotions
- Pathetic fallacy – Attribution of human emotion and conduct to non-human things
- Social emotions – Emotions that depend upon other people
- Sympathy – Perception of, understanding of, and reaction to the distress or need of another being
References
- S2CID 144602784.
- ^ Godrej, Dinyar. "Stuff Pity!". New Internationalist.
- ^ Goleman, D. (1995). Emotional Intelligence. London. pp. 98–99.
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: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Fenichel, O. (1946). The Psychoanalytic Theory of Neurosis. London. p. 476.
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: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Blake, William. "The Human Abstract". Songs of Innocence and of Experience. William Blake Archive, copy L, object 47 (Bentley 47, Erdman 47, Keynes 47)
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: CS1 maint: postscript (link) - ^ Harris, R. Laird (ed.). "698a: ḥesed". Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament. Vol. 1. Chicago: Moody Press. p. 305.
- ^ Conze, E., ed. (1959). Buddhist Scriptures. Penguin. p. 209.
- ^ Aristotle. Rhetoric. II.8.
- ^ ISBN 0-7156-2904-2.
- ^ Aristotle. Poetics. VI.1449b24–28.
- ^ a b c Hume, David (1740). "Of Compassion". A Treatise of Human Nature. Vol. II.2.
- ^ Rousseau, Jean-Jacques (2004) [1755]. Discourse on the origin of inequality. Mineola: Dover. p. 21.
- ^ Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm (1987) [1884]. "Letters". In Kaufmann, Walter (ed.). The Portable Nietzsche. London. p. 440.
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: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm (1987) [1888]. "Twilight of the Idols/The Antichrist". In Kaufmann, Walter (ed.). The Portable Nietzsche. London. pp. 540 & 573.
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: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ ISBN 978-1-5128-0240-5.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-271-04284-8.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-78316-265-9.
- ISSN 0261-9822.
- .
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Further reading
- Hume, David (1975) [1751]. "An Enquiry concerning the Principles of Morals". In Selby-Bigge, L.A.; Nidditch, P.H. (eds.). Enquires concerning Human Understanding and concerning the Principles of Morals. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Sec. VI Part II, p. 248, n.1.
- Konstan, David (2001). Pity Transformed. London: Bristol Classical Press. p. 181. ISBN 0-7156-2904-2.
- Sánchez, Gonzalo J. (2004). Pity in Fin-de-siècle French Culture: "liberté, Égalité, Pitié". Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-275-98000-9.
- Tudor, Stephen (2000). Compassion and Remorse: Acknowledging the Suffering Other. Leuven: Peeters.
- Wispé, Lauren (1991). The Psychology of Sympathy. New York, N.Y.: Springer Science & Business Media. ISBN 978-0-306-43798-4.
External links
- The dictionary definition of pity at Wiktionary