2007-10-12 07:41:21 · 18 answers · asked by kickinupfunf 6 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Philosophy
I'm not sure why you'd have to understand any emotion if you didn't understand it.
Are you saying a mentally-challenged person can not feel a whole range of emotions if he/she doesn't undertand them? Of course they can.
As infants, we don't understand happiness or sadness and yet we experience them.
We experience 'love'- a more complex emotion- and yet few ever undertand it or could define it.
Of course we can be compassionate without being able to understand it.
Adolph Hitler understood compassion. And yet...
2007-10-12 07:55:29 · answer #1 · answered by Michael K 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
A dictionary meaning? An example of compassion? I think we learn many things by example from the day we are born, so perhaps we need an example of compassion in order to at least know when we are feeling it... though I believe a person can be compassionate and not yet aware that compassion is the particular feeling one is having. Watch young children, toddlers, even babies...
2007-10-12 07:55:07 · answer #2 · answered by LK 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Yes, but the question can be percieved as misleading.
I think people posting here are confusing "reading a definition of 'compassion' from the dictionary" with "knowing the meaning of 'compassion'".
When you read a definition, you sometimes still don't know its meaning. Take the word 'ziggurat'. It's definition is 'A temple tower of the ancient Mesopotamian valley, having the form of a terraced pyramid of successively receding stories.'
Knowing this doesn't allow you to feel the sense of awe inspired by one of these places by the Mesopotamians, nor does it allow you to understand that when they were built, you or I would never have been allowed inside or one on. It doesn't allow you to know that inside a ziggurat resided one of your Gods, and it was their home on earth, giving a sense of comfort and closeness not supplied by the temple in which you worshipped that same God.
In short, the definition does not allow for an UNDERSTANDING of the concept of 'ziggurat'.
The same can be said of almost any word, especially 'compassion'. On order to have compassion, you must understand what you are feeling. As ghouly05 said, an aborigine could feel compassion without knowing what the word means. It has nothing to do with the word.
As was written in "The Matrix: Revolutions" when Neo was in the train station, he asked a computer program how it could 'love' it's daughter, and the program replied to him:
"Love is just a word. What is important is the connection that the word implies."
In this case, you would have to understand the connection that 'compassion' implies in order to feel it, and even if you don't, the understanding of that connection would come instantaneously with the realization of such a connection.
In other words, even if you don't know the meaning of compassion before you feel it, you will as soon as you do feel it, even without a means to express it.
2007-10-12 09:49:36 · answer #3 · answered by prof. hambone 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
No, I do not think that you have to know the meaning of Compassion, to feel it. Compassion, is in us, and when you see someone, that is sick, or a disable person, or whatever it is you see, that is different than you, is when you feel compassion for them, and want to help them in some way. I always feel compassion for people in need of Food or small Children, who I see crying.
2007-10-12 15:00:21 · answer #4 · answered by a.vasquez7413@sbcglobal.net 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
No and I think this is true for any other feeling. The meaning does not trigger any one to feel something or anything for anyone. Oftentimes we feel the pain and hardships of others even if we don't know what compassion is all about.
2007-10-16 03:56:56 · answer #5 · answered by Rhythm of the Falling Rain 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I'd rather say one needs to feel compassion to know what it means. When we are faced with scenes of poverty, or calamity, or cruelty of war,..we are moved with great pity and we understand how it is to suffer and die a thousand deaths inside.
Compassion allows us to see beyond the surface of grief and sadness. It stirs us to wide open our hearts into sharing the misery of the less fortunate;..To extend our hands in giving what we could - materially, or spiritually.
We need to feel the needs of others to realize that we could not just turn our face away from the reality that we all are affected one way or another by the sentiment of compassion.
2007-10-12 14:38:44 · answer #6 · answered by ? 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
emotion and understanding are very different things. A child that cannot yet speak can feel happy - even though he doesn't yet know the word for it. So, I would say, No you do not need to know the meaning of compassion to feel it.
2007-10-12 07:45:23 · answer #7 · answered by Gemma S 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋
No. Some aborigine somewhere who has never heard the word, and has no language at all, could still feel compassion. He might call it Ugh, or something, but it would still be the same feeling.
2007-10-12 07:49:34 · answer #8 · answered by ghouly05 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
No, but maybe you do not have so much compassion in you , if you cannot understand the meaning.
2007-10-12 07:44:34 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Shalama, it truly is alright to have compassion on others and all sentient beings. In a fashion i assume you would be wanting to sense undesirable approximately your self to verify which you to be style unto others. in case you know who you relatively are then you definately would be inspired to be a extra ideal guy or woman. The suffering and genuine detriments of others call us to coach compassion and help them in any potential we are in a position to. Peace
2016-10-22 04:08:44 · answer #10 · answered by gustavo 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋