DEFINITION OF COMPASSION

Christopher Ebbe,  Ph.D.      12-10

Compassion is an attitude and a feeling state composed of warm concern for another with regard to what we perceive as the negative feelings or life status of that other person, together with a desire for positive life status and outcomes for the person.  (Webster’s Ninth Collegiate dictionary defines compassion as “sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress together with a desire to alleviate it.”)  Compassion is based in an empathic understanding of the status and outcomes of that person or persons.  It implies that one will manage his behavior so that it will not lead to negative life status and outcomes for the person of concern, and it may (but need not) lead to actions designed to enhance the life status and outcomes of the person.  Theoretically one could also feel compassion for more than one person, as well as for non-human beings and for the earth, as well as for oneself.

(For more on compassion, see “Compassion” under “Living Compassionately”