Editing Pity (section)

==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>