View source for Pity

{{short description|Sympathetic sorrow evoked by the suffering of others}}
{{Other uses}}
'''Pity''' is a [[Sympathy|sympathetic]] [[sorrow (emotion)|sorrow]] evoked by the [[suffering]] of others. The word is comparable to ''[[compassion]]'', ''[[condolence]]'', or ''[[empathy]]''. It derives from the Latin {{lang|la|[[pietas]]}} (etymon also of ''[[piety]]''). [[Self-pity]] is pity directed towards oneself.

Two different kinds of pity can be distinguished, "benevolent pity" and "contemptuous pity".<ref>{{cite journal|last=Kimball|first=Robert H.|title=A Plea for Pity|journal=[[Philosophy & Rhetoric]]|year=2004|volume=37|issue=4|pages=301–316|doi=10.1353/par.2004.0029|s2cid=144602784 }}</ref> In the latter, through insincere, pejorative usage, pity connotes feelings of superiority, condescension, or contempt.<ref name="Stuff Pitty!">{{cite web|last=Godrej|first=Dinyar|url=https://newint.org/features/2005/11/01/keynote/|title=Stuff Pity!|website=New Internationalist|date=November 2005 }}</ref>

==Psychological opinions==
Psychologists see pity arising in early [[childhood]] out of the infant's ability to identify with others.<ref>{{cite book|first=D.|last=Goleman|title=Emotional Intelligence|location=London|year=1995|pages=98–99}}</ref>

[[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.<ref>{{cite book|first=O.|last=Fenichel|title=The Psychoanalytic Theory of Neurosis|location=London|year=1946|page=476}}</ref>
[[File:Den Leichnam des Darius.jpg|thumb|right|Alexander sees with a look of pity that Darius has died from his wounds.]]
[[File:Songs of Innocence and of Experience, copy L, 1795 (Yale Center for British Art) The Human Abstract.jpg|thumb|upright|''[[The Human Abstract (poem)|The Human Abstract]]'', a poem in William Blake's collection ''[[Songs of Innocence and of Experience]]'', in which he proclaims "Pity would be no more, / If we did not make somebody Poor" (1–2). This version is copy L created in 1795 and currently held by the [[Yale Center for British Art]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://www.blakearchive.org/copy/songsie.b?descId=songsie.b.illbk.38| title = Songs of Innocence and of Experience|postscript=, copy L, object 47 (Bentley 47, Erdman 47, Keynes 47)|chapter=The Human Abstract |first=William|last=Blake| publisher = [[William Blake Archive]]}}</ref>]]

==Religious views==
In the [[Western culture|West]], the religious concept of pity was reinforced after acceptance of [[Judaism|Judeo]]-[[Christianity|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" ({{Bibleverse|Psalms|103:13|KJV}}). The Hebrew word {{transliteration|he|hesed}} translated in the [[Septuagint]] as {{transliteration|grc|eleos}} carries the meaning roughly equivalent to pity in the sense of compassion, mercy, and loving-kindness.<ref>{{cite book|chapter=698a: ḥesed|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/theological-wordbook-of-the-old-testament/page/305/mode/1up|title=Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament|editor-first=R. Laird|editor-last=Harris|volume=1|location=Chicago|publisher=Moody Press|page=305}}</ref>

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".<ref>{{cite book|editor-first=E.|editor-last=Conze|title=Buddhist Scriptures|publisher=Penguin|year=1959|page=209}}</ref>

==Philosophical assessments==
[[Aristotle]] in his ''[[Rhetoric (Aristotle)|Rhetoric]]'' argued that before a person can feel pity for another human, the person must first have experienced [[suffering]] of a similar type, and the person must also be somewhat distanced or removed from the sufferer.<ref>{{cite book|author=[[Aristotle]]|title=[[Rhetoric (Aristotle)|Rhetoric]]|at=II.8}}</ref><ref name="konstan">{{cite book|author=David Konstan|title=Pity Transformed|location=London|publisher=Duckworth|year=2001|pages=181|isbn=0-7156-2904-2}}</ref> He defines pity as follows: "Let pity, then, be a kind of pain in the case of an apparent destructive or painful harm of one not deserving to encounter it, which one might expect oneself, or one of one's own, to suffer, and this when it seems near".<ref name="konstan" /> Aristotle also pointed out that "people pity their acquaintances, provided that they are not exceedingly close in kinship; for concerning these they are disposed as they are concerning themselves", arguing further that in order to feel pity, a person must believe that the person who is suffering does not [[Deserving|deserve]] their fate.<ref name="konstan" /> Developing a traditional Greek view in his work on poetry, Aristotle also defines tragedy as a kind of imitative poetry that provokes pity and fear.<ref>{{cite book|author=[[Aristotle]]|title=[[Poetics (Aristotle)|Poetics]]|at=VI.1449b24–28}}</ref>

[[David Hume]] in his ''[[Treatise of Human Nature]]'' argued that "pity is concern for... the misery of others without any friendship... to occasion this concern."<ref name=Hume>{{cite book|last=Hume|first=David|title=A Treatise of Human Nature|volume=II.2|chapter=Of Compassion|year=1740}}</ref> He continues that pity "is derived from the imagination."{{r|Hume}} When one observes a person in misfortune, the observer initially imagines his sorrow, even though they may not feel the same. While "we blush for the conduct of those, who behave themselves foolishly before us; and that though they show no sense of shame, nor seem in the least conscious of their folly," Hume argues "that he is the more worthy of compassion the less sensible he is of his miserable condition."{{r|Hume}}

[[Jean-Jacques Rousseau]] had the following opinion of pity as opposed to love for others: {{Blockquote|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, [[Golden Rule|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."<ref>{{cite book|last1=Rousseau|first1=Jean-Jacques|title=[[Discourse on Inequality|Discourse on the origin of inequality]]|date=2004|orig-date=1755|publisher=Dover|location=Mineola|page=21}}</ref>}}

[[Nietzsche]] pointed out that since all people to some degree value [[self-esteem]] and [[self-worth]], pity can negatively affect any situation. Nietzsche considered his own sensitivity to pity a lifelong weakness;<ref>{{cite book|first=Friedrich Wilhelm|last=Nietzsche|editor-first=Walter|editor-last=Kaufmann|chapter=Letters|title=The Portable Nietzsche|location=London|year=1987|orig-year=1884|page=440}}</ref> and condemned what he called "[[Schopenhauer]]'s morality of pity... pity negates life".<ref>{{cite book|first=Friedrich Wilhelm|last=Nietzsche|editor-first=Walter|editor-last=Kaufmann|chapter=Twilight of the Idols/The Antichrist|title=The Portable Nietzsche|location=London|year=1987|pages=540 & 573|orig-year=1888}}</ref>

== Medieval conceptions ==
[[Geoffrey Chaucer]] wrote "{{lang|enm|pite renneth soone in gentil herte}}" at least ten times in his works, across the ''[[Canterbury Tales]]'' and the ''[[Legend of Good Women]]''.<ref name=Hoffman2016>{{cite book|title=Ovid and the Canterbury Tales|author1-first=Richard L.|author1-last=Hoffman|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|year=2016|isbn=978-1-5128-0240-5}}</ref>{{rp|68}}
The word "{{lang|enm|pite}}" had entered [[Middle English]] from Latin "{{lang|la|[[pietas]]}}" in seven spellings: "{{lang|enm|piete}}", "{{lang|enm|pietie}}", "{{lang|enm|pietye}}", "{{lang|enm|pite}}", "{{lang|enm|pitie}}", "{{lang|enm|pyte}}", and "{{lang|enm|pytie}}".<ref name=Garrison2010>{{cite book|title=Pietas from Vergil to Dryden|author1-first=James D.|author1-last=Garrison|publisher=Penn State Press|year=2010|isbn=978-0-271-04284-8}}</ref>{{rp|15}}
Early Middle English writers did not yet have words such as "sympathy" and "empathy"; and even the word "compassion" is not attested in English until the 14th century.<ref name=Lazikani2015>{{cite book|title=Cultivating the Heart: Feeling and Emotion in Twelfth- and Thirteenth-Century Religious Texts|author1-first=A.S.|author1-last=Lazikani|publisher=University of Wales Press|year=2015|isbn=978-1-78316-265-9}}</ref>{{rp|p=72}}
The Mediaeval writer's notion of "{{lang|enm|pite}}" was thus somewhat different to the divided ideas of pity and [[piety]] in Modern English, which has also since gained connotations of disengagement (the pitier as an observer to and separate from the pitied) and condescension from a superior position.{{r|Lazikani2015|p=73}}

The many senses of the compound notion are exemplified by how Erasmus' ''[[Handbook of a Christian Knight|Enchiridion]]'' was translated in the 16th century.{{r|Garrison2010|p=15}}
In the original Latin, talking about the ways of the spirit versus the ways of the flesh, Erasmus says "{{lang|la|spiritus pios, caro impios}}".{{r|Garrison2010|p=15}}
In translation, the single words in Latin became several phrases in English to encompass the entire range of the original concept, which was by that time bifurcating as the words were bifurcating: "{{lang|en-emodeng|[T]he spiryte maketh us relygyous, obedyent to god, kynde and mercyfull. The flesshe maketh us dispysers of god, disobedyent to god, unkynde and cruell.}}"{{r|Garrison2010|p=15}}

Chaucer's line, described by [[Walter William Skeat|Walter Skeat]] as being Chaucer's favourite, was understood by [[Edgar F. Shannon Jr.|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".{{r|Hoffman2016|p=68}}
A noble mind ("{{lang|la|mens generosa}}" in Ovid, "{{lang|en-emodeng|gentil herte}}" in Chaucer) is easily moved ("{{lang|la|faciles motus capit}}" in Ovid, "{{lang|en-emodeng|renneth soone}}" in Chaucer) to kindness ("{{lang|la|plababilis irae}}" in Ovid "{{lang|en-emodeng|pite}}" in Chaucer).{{r|Hoffman2016|pp=68–69}}
In the ''Legend'', Chaucer describes women in general as "{{lang|en-emodeng|pyëtous}}".<ref name=Mann2002>{{cite book|title=Feminizing Chaucer|volume=30|series=Chaucer studies|issn=0261-9822|author1-first=Jill|author1-last=Mann|publisher=Boydell & Brewer Ltd|year=2002|isbn=978-0-85991-613-4}}</ref>{{rp|32}}

It wasn't until the 16th century that there was a fully-fledged split between pity and piety.<ref>{{multiref2
|1={{cite book|title=Global Dilemmas: Imperial Bolton-le-Moors from the Hungry Forties to the Death of Leverhulme|author1-first=Malcolm|author1-last=Hardman|chapter=The pity of war|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|year=2017|isbn=978-1-61147-903-4|page=272}}
|2={{cite journal|title=Pietas: réflexions sur l'analyse sémantique et le traitement lexicographique d'un vocable médiéval|author1-first=Bruno|author1-last=Bon|author2-first=Anita|author2-last=Guerreau-Jalabert|journal=Médiévales|year=2002|volume=21 |issue=42|doi=10.3406/medi.2002.1540 |url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/medi_0751-2708_2002_num_21_42_1540|language=fr|page=78}}
}}</ref>
In the 14th century, [[John Gower]] was, in contrast, using "{{lang|enm|pite}}" in his ''[[Confessio Amantis]]'' to encompass both concepts, as his Latin glosses to the text reveal, stating that "{{lang|enm|pite is the foundement of every kinges regiment}}".{{r|Garrison2010|pp=118–119}}
Cognates of the word include the [[Occitan language|Provençal]] "{{lang|oc|[[wikt:pietat|pietat]]}}" and the [[Spanish language|Spanish]] "{{lang|es|[[wikt:piedad#Spanish|piedad]]}}".{{r|Lazikani2015|p=73}}
Like Middle English, Old French took the word from the Latin and gradually split it into "{{lang|fro|[[wikt:pité#Old French|pité]]}}" (later "{{lang|fr|[[wikt:piété#French|piété]]}}") and "{{lang|fro|[[wikt:pitié#French|pitié]]}}".{{r|Garrison2010|p=118}}<ref name=Colot2014>{{cite encyclopaedia|encyclopaedia=Dictionary of Untranslatables: A Philosophical Lexicon|editor1-first=Barbara|editor1-last=Cassin|editor2-first=Emily|editor2-last=Apter|editor3-first=Jacques|editor3-last=Lezra|editor4-first=Michael|editor4-last=Wood|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=2014|isbn=978-1-4008-4991-8|article=pietas|author1-first=Blandine|author1-last=Colot|page=785}}</ref>
[[Italian language|Italian]] in contrast retained the one word: "{{lang|it|[[wikt:pietà#Italian|pietà]]}}", borrowed into English (through French, in the 19th century replacing its older "{{lang|fr|Vierge de pitié}}") as a technical concept in the arts: [[pietà]].{{r|Garrison2010|p=118}}{{r|Colot2014}}

==Literary examples==
*[[Juvenal]] considered pity the noblest aspect of human nature.<ref>{{cite book|editor-first=J. D.|editor-last=Duff|title=Fourteen Satires of Juvenal|author=Juvenal|location=Cambridge|year=1925|page=450}}</ref>
*[[mysticism|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.<ref name=Urizen>{{cite book|first=William|last=Blake|title=The Book of Urizen|year=1794}}</ref>{{rp|at=13.50–51}} However, Pity furthers the fall, "For pity divides the soul",{{r|Urizen|at=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 (poem)|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]]'':<ref>{{cite book|first=T.|last=Shippey|title=J. R. R. Tolkien|location=London|year=2001|page=143}}</ref> "It was Pity that stayed his hand... the pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many".<ref>{{cite book|first=J. R. R.|last=Tolkien|title=[[The Fellowship of the Ring]]|location=London|year=1991|page=58}}</ref>
*[[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"<ref>{{cite book|first=Wilfred|last=Owen|editor-first=J.|editor-last=Silkin|title=Wilfred Owen: The Poems|publisher=Penguin|year=1985|page=43}}</ref>—something [[C. H. Sisson]] considered to verge on sentimentality.<ref>{{cite book|first=C. H.|last=Sisson|title=English Poetry 1900–1950|location=Manchester|year=1981|page=83}}</ref>

== See also ==
{{Columns-list|
* {{annotated link|[[Animism]]}}
* {{annotated link|[[Compassion]]}}
* {{annotated link|[[Dignity]]}}
* {{annotated link|[[Empathy]]}}
* {{annotated link|[[Moral emotions]]}}
* {{annotated link|[[Pathetic fallacy]]}}
* {{annotated link|[[Social emotions]]}}
* {{annotated link|[[Sympathy]]}}
}}

== References ==
{{Reflist|2|}}

== Further reading ==
* {{cite book|first=David|last=Hume|chapter=An Enquiry concerning the Principles of Morals|title=Enquires concerning Human Understanding and concerning the Principles of Morals|orig-year=1751|editor-first1=L.A.|editor-last1=Selby-Bigge|editor-first2=P.H.|editor-last2=Nidditch|location=Oxford|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1975|at=Sec. VI Part II, p.&nbsp;248, n.1}}
* {{cite book | last=Konstan | first=David | title=Pity Transformed | publisher=Bristol Classical Press | publication-place=London | year=2001 | isbn=0-7156-2904-2 | page=181}}
* {{cite book|title=Pity in Fin-de-siècle French Culture: "liberté, Égalité, Pitié"|author1-first=Gonzalo J.|author1-last=Sánchez|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|year=2004|isbn=978-0-275-98000-9}}
* {{cite book|first=Stephen|last=Tudor|title=Compassion and Remorse: Acknowledging the Suffering Other|location=Leuven|publisher=Peeters|year=2000}}
* {{cite book | last=Wispé | first=Lauren | title=The Psychology of Sympathy | publisher=Springer Science & Business Media | publication-place=New York, N.Y. | year=1991 | isbn=978-0-306-43798-4}}

== External links ==
{{Wikiquote}}
* {{Wiktionary-inline|pity}}

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