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Humanity, as a virtue, embodies the qualities of compassion, kindness, and altruism that connect individuals through acts of empathy and social intelligence. Distinguished from the concept of justice, which emphasizes fairness, humanity involves a personal, selfless consideration for others. This virtue has ancient roots, emerging in various philosophical and religious traditions, including Confucianism, where the principle of Ren encourages mutual support and exemplifies the "Golden Rule." Western philosophical thought also explores virtues akin to humanity, with figures like Plato and Aristotle discussing ideals of love and kindness, though not categorizing them specifically under "humanity."
The development of humanity as a moral and social virtue also reflects historical influences, including Renaissance humanism, which emphasized human dignity and compassionate ethics. Psychologically, humanity is often examined through character strengths such as kindness, love, and social intelligence, with research indicating that these traits contribute positively to well-being and personal relationships. Humanity remains one of the six core virtues identified across cultures, playing a role in ethical frameworks and theories of moral development.
Confucius said that humanity, or "Ren" (仁), is a "love of people" stating "if you want to make a stand, help others make a stand."[1]:40 That is, the Confucian theory of humanity exemplifies the golden rule. It is so central to Confucian thought that it appears 58 times in the Analects.[2]:296Similar[clarification needed] to the Christian process of seeking God, Confucius teaches seeking Ren to a point of seemingly divine mastery until you are equal to, or better than, your teacher.[2]:298 The Confucian concept of Ren encompasses both love and altruism.[2]:312
Greek philosophy
Plato and Aristotle both wrote extensively on the subject of virtues, though neither wrote about "humanity" as a virtue, despite highly valuing love and kindness, two of the strengths of humanity.[citation needed] Plato and Aristotle considered "courage, justice, temperance" and "generosity, wit, friendliness, truthfulness, magnificence, and greatness of soul", respectively, to be the virtues.[1]:40
Kindness, altruism, and love are all mentioned in the Bible. Proverbs 19:22 states "the desire of a man is his kindness." On the topic of altruism, emphasis is placed on helping strangers (Hebrews 13:1) and the biblical adage "it is better to give than to receive" (Acts 20:35).
Humanity is one of Thomas Aquinas' "Seven Heavenly Virtues".[1]:48 Beyond that, humanity was so important in some positivist Christian cultures that it was to be capitalized like God.[3]:426
Strengths of humanity
Love
Love has many different definitions ranging from a set of purely biological and chemical processes to a religious concept. As a character strength, love is a mutual feeling between two people characterized by attachment, comfort, and generally positive feelings. It can be broken down into three categories: love between a child and their parents, love for your friends, and romantic love.[1]:304 Having love as a strength is not about the capacity to love, but about being involved in a loving relationship.
Love, in the psychological sense, is most often studied in terms of attachment to others. A degree of controversy surrounds defining and researching love in this way, as it takes away the "mystery of love."[1]:306 Because love is mysterious, to an extent, it is most often studied in terms of attachment theory, because it can be studied in the way across ages[clarification needed]. In infants, attachment is studied through the Strange Situation Test. Attachment to an individual, usually the mother, is determined by how distressed the infant becomes when the mother is taken out of the experimental setting.[1]:308 There are several models of adult attachment including the Adult Attachment Interviews and Adult Attachment Prototypes. Generally adult attachment models focus on the mental representation of the visible signs of attachment seen in infants.[1]:311
Negative affect states result from lacking love. One study found that children raised in an environment that did not allow children to become attached to their preferred caregivers experienced attachment disorders.[4] Individuals who develop securely attached have a lower likelihood of depression, high-self esteem, and less likelihood of divorce.[1]:315
Kindness
Giving alms to poor children can be considered an act of altruism or generosity.
The strength of kindness encompasses things like altruism, generosity, helpfulness and a general desire to help people: a disposition for helping humanity. The following statements are from the Values in Action (VIA) psychological assessment, which aims at measuring people's strengths in kindness: "others are just as important to me", "giving is more important than receiving", and "I care for the ungrateful as well as the grateful".[1]:326 Kindness, as a part of humanity, is deeply rooted in philosophical and religious traditions, each having words for the altruistic love aspect of kindness, such as agape in Greek, chesed in Hebrew, and the Latin word philantropia, the root of the word "philanthropy."[1]:326 Kindness is promoted through school community service programs and national programs like AmeriCorps. While gender differences in kindness are statistically significant, they are minimal, and the methods of testing used may not always have construct validity.[1]:333
Kindness is most often measured by using an ad hoc metric, usually not as a trait. The Self-Report Altruism Scale and the Altruism Facet Scale for Agreeableness Measure of the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) psychological assessment are often used to ask people how often they engage in altruistic behaviors and to gauge their concern for others.[1]:328 The former, however, only asks about 20 specific altruistic acts, leaving out a wide range of altruistic behaviors.
There are numerous benefits from kindness and altruism on both sides of the action. For some, the motivation to be kind comes from a place of egoistic motivation, and thus the benefit to them is the positive affect state they receive from the action.[5] One study found that being kind develops pro-social skills in children, which positively effects their attachments and relationships.[6] Additionally, volunteerism in the elderly has shown to lead to decreased risk of early death, and to mental health benefits.[1]:329 There is a difference between altruism as a trait and as an act.[1]:329
Social intelligence
Being able to actively engage in a conversation is often considered a sign of social intelligence.
Social intelligence is the most recently-discerned of the three strengths associated with humanity. The Character Strengths and Virtues (CSV) psychological assessment defines social intelligence as the ability to understand "relationships with other people, including the social relationships involved in intimacy and trust, persuasion, group membership, and political power."[1]:339
Intelligence has many psychological definitions, from Weschler's intelligence to the various theories of multiple intelligences. The CSV divides intelligence into hot and cold, hot intelligence being those intelligences related to active emotional processes.[1]:338 People with high social intelligence are very self-aware, and are effective organizers and leaders.[1]:338 Additionally, it[ambiguous] combines elements of the other two hot intelligences, personal and emotional intelligence—personal intelligence being the internal counterpart to social intelligence and emotional intelligence being the capacity to understand emotions. The CSV highlights three social intelligence measurement scales: Factor Based Social Intelligence Tasks, Psychological Mindedness Assessment Procedure, and Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test.[1]:334
Social Intelligence research is limited. However, there is much literature on the characteristics associated with social intelligence. Zaccaro et al. found social intelligence and perceptiveness to be integral to effective leadership; that is, good leaders are "social experts."[7] Emotional intelligence, too, plays a role in leadership. Another study found that emotional intelligence enables leaders to better understand their followers, thereby enhancing their ability to influence them.[8]
Although only a relatively new field of inquiry for psychological researchers, character strengths[9] and virtues[10] have been consistently measured in psychometric surveys and have been shown to be positively associated with psychological and subjective wellbeing.[11] Even among those who endorse a spiritual/theistic worldview, these salutary associations appear to be better explained by humanity/civility rather than by faith in a supernatural being.[12]
1 2 3 Chan, Wing-Tsit (January 1955). "The Evolution of the Confucian Concept Jên". Philosophy East and West. 4 (4): 294–319. doi:10.2307/1396741. JSTOR1396741.
↑ Coit, Stanton (July 1906). "Humanity and God". International Journal of Ethics. 16 (4): 424–429. doi:10.1086/206237.
↑ Smyke, Anna T.; Dumitrescu, Alina; Zeanah, Charles H. (August 2002). "Attachment Disturbances in Young Children. I: The Continuum of Caretaking Casualty". Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. 41 (8): 972–982. doi:10.1097/00004583-200208000-00016. PMID12162633.
↑ Dovido, John F.; Allen, David A.; Schroeder, Judith L. (August 1990). "Specificity of Empathy-Induced Helping: Evidence for Altruistic Motivation". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 59 (2): 249. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.59.2.249.
↑ Zeece, Pauline Davey (18 March 2009). "Using Current Literature Selections to Nurture the Development of Kindness in Young Children". Early Childhood Education Journal. 36 (5): 448. doi:10.1007/s10643-009-0306-3. S2CID143846116.
↑ Zaccaro, Stephen J.; Gilbert, Janelle A.; Theor, Kirk K.; Mumford, Michael D. (Winter 1991). "Leadership and Social Intelligence: Linking Social Perspectiveness and Behavioral Flexibility to Leader Effectiveness". Leadership Quarterly. 2 (4): 334. doi:10.1016/1048-9843(91)90018-w.
Isaacowitz, D.M.; Vallant, G.E.; Seligman, M.E.P. (2003). "Strengths and satisfaction across the adult lifespan". International Journal of Aging and Human Development. 57 (2): 181–201. doi:10.2190/61EJ-LDYR-Q55N-UT6E. PMID15151189. S2CID8366635.
Park, N.; Peterson, C.; Seligman, M.E.P. (2004). "Strengths of character and well-being". Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology. 23 (5): 603–619. doi:10.1521/jscp.23.5.603.50748.
Fowers, B.J. (2005). Virtue and psychology: Pursuing excellence in ordinary practices. American Psychological Association.
Toner, E.; Haslam, N.; Robinson, J.; Williams, P. (2012). "Character strengths and wellbeing in adolescence: Structure and correlates of the Values in Action Inventory of Strengths for Children". Personality and Individual Differences. 52 (5): 637–642. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2011.12.014.
↑ Schuurmans-Stekhoven, J.B. (2011). "Is it God or just the data that moves in mysterious ways? How well-being research might be mistaking faith for virtue?". Social Indicators Research. 100 (2): 313–330. doi:10.1007/s11205-010-9630-7. S2CID144755003..
↑ Schuurmans-Stekhoven, J.B. (2013). "'As a Shepherd Divideth his Sheep from the Goats': Does the Daily Spiritual Experiences Scale Encapsulate Separable Theistic and Civility Components?". Social Indicators Research. 110 (1): 131–146. doi:10.1007/s11205-011-9920-8. S2CID255002643.
Altruism is the principle and practice of concern for the well-being and/or happiness of other humans or animals largely independent of that person's opinion of or reaction to oneself. While objects of altruistic concern vary, it is an important moral value in many cultures and religions. It may be considered a synonym of selflessness, the opposite of self-centeredness.
Love encompasses a range of strong and positive emotional and mental states, from the most sublime virtue or good habit, the deepest interpersonal affection, to the simplest pleasure. An example of this range of meanings is that the love of a mother differs from the love of a spouse, which differs from the love of food. Most commonly, love refers to a feeling of strong attraction and emotional attachment.
Wisdom is the use of one's knowledge and experience to make good judgements. Wisdom is the interpreting and understanding of knowledge that leads to greater insight. Wisdom is a pragmatic kind of "praxis (process)" where one is constantly using metacognition.
A virtue is a trait of excellence, including traits that may be moral, social, or intellectual. The cultivation and refinement of virtue is held to be the "good of humanity" and thus is valued as an end purpose of life or a foundational principle of being. In human practical ethics, a virtue is a disposition to choose actions that succeed in showing high moral standards: doing what is said to be right and avoiding what is wrong in a given field of endeavour, even when doing so may be unnecessary from a utilitarian perspective. When someone takes pleasure in doing what is right, even when it is difficult or initially unpleasant, they can establish virtue as a habit. Such a person is said to be virtuous through having cultivated such a disposition. The opposite of virtue is vice, and the vicious person takes pleasure in habitual wrong-doing to their detriment.
Emotional intelligence (EI), also known as emotional quotient (EQ), is the ability to perceive, use, understand, manage, and handle emotions. High emotional intelligence includes emotional recognition of emotions of the self and others, using emotional information to guide thinking and behavior, discerning between and labeling of different feelings, and adjusting emotions to adapt to environments.
Leadership, is defined as the ability of an individual, group, or organization to "lead", influence, or guide other individuals, teams, or organizations.
Agape is "the highest form of love, charity" and "the love of God for [human beings] and of [human beings] for God". This is in contrast to philia, brotherly love, or philautia, self-love, as it embraces a profound sacrificial love that transcends and persists regardless of circumstance.
Positive psychology is a field of psychological theory and research of optimal human functioning of people, groups, and institutions. It studies "positive subjective experience, positive individual traits, and positive institutions... it aims to improve quality of life."
Kindness is a type of behavior marked by acts of generosity, consideration, rendering assistance, or concern for others, without expecting praise or reward in return. It is a subject of interest in philosophy, religion, and psychology.
Compassion is a social feeling that motivates people to go out of their way to relieve the physical, mental, or emotional pains of others and themselves. Compassion is sensitivity to the emotional aspects of the suffering of others. When based on notions such as fairness, justice, and interdependence, it may be considered partially rational in nature.
Moral Psychology is the study of human thought and behavior in ethical contexts. Historically, the term "moral psychology" was used relatively narrowly to refer to the study of moral development. This field of study is interdisciplinary between the application of philosophy and psychology. Moral psychology eventually came to refer more broadly to various topics at the intersection of ethics, psychology, and philosophy of mind. Some of the main topics of the field are moral judgment, moral reasoning, moral satisficing, moral sensitivity, moral responsibility, moral motivation, moral identity, moral action, moral development, moral diversity, moral character, altruism, psychological egoism, moral luck, moral forecasting, moral emotion, affective forecasting, and moral disagreement.
Caring in intimate relationships is the practice of providing care and support to an intimate relationship partner. Caregiving behaviours are aimed at reducing the partner's distress and supporting their coping efforts in situations of either threat or challenge. Caregiving may include emotional support and/or instrumental support. Effective caregiving behaviour enhances the care-recipient's psychological well-being, as well as the quality of the relationship between the caregiver and the care-recipient. However, certain suboptimal caregiving strategies may be either ineffective or even detrimental to coping.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the human self:
Ren is a Confucian virtue meaning the good quality of a virtuous human when reaching for higher ideals or when being altruistic. Ren is exemplified by functional, instinctual, parental feelings and intentions of encouragement and protection for their children. It is considered the outward expression of Confucian ideals.
Trauma bonds are emotional bonds that arise from a cyclical pattern of abuse. A trauma bond occurs in an abusive relationship, wherein the victim forms an emotional bond with the perpetrator. The concept was developed by psychologists Donald Dutton and Susan Painter.
The VIA Inventory of Strengths (VIA-IS), formerly known as the Values in Action Inventory, is a proprietary psychological assessment measure designed to identify an individual's profile of "character strengths".
The HEXACO model of personality structure is a six-dimensional model of human personality that was created by Ashton and Lee and explained in their book, The H Factor of Personality, based on findings from a series of lexical studies involving several European and Asian languages. The six factors, or dimensions, include honesty-humility (H), emotionality (E), extraversion (X), agreeableness (A), conscientiousness (C), and openness to experience (O). Each factor is composed of traits with characteristics indicating high and low levels of the factor. The HEXACO model was developed through similar methods as other trait taxonomies and builds on the work of Costa and McCrae and Goldberg. The model, therefore, shares several common elements with other trait models. However, the HEXACO model is unique mainly due to the addition of the honesty-humility dimension.
Warm-glow giving is an economic theory describing the emotional reward of giving to others. According to the original warm-glow model developed by James Andreoni, people experience a sense of joy and satisfaction for "doing their part" to help others. This satisfaction - or "warm glow" - represents the selfish pleasure derived from "doing good", regardless of the actual impact of one's generosity. Within the warm-glow framework, people may be "impurely altruistic", meaning they simultaneously maintain both altruistic and egoistic (selfish) motivations for giving. This may be partially due to the fact that "warm glow" sometimes gives people credit for the contributions they make, such as a plaque with their name or a system where they can make donations publicly so other people know the "good" they are doing for the community.
Elevation is an emotion elicited by witnessing actual or imagined virtuous acts of remarkable moral goodness. It is experienced as a distinct feeling of warmth and expansion that is accompanied by appreciation and affection for the individual whose exceptional conduct is being observed. Elevation motivates those who experience it to open up to, affiliate with, and assist others. Elevation makes an individual feel lifted up and optimistic about humanity.
Moral emotions are a variety of social emotions that are involved in forming and communicating moral judgments and decisions, and in motivating behavioral responses to one's own and others' moral behavior. As defined by Jonathan Haidt, moral emotions "are linked to the interests or welfare either of a society as a whole or at least of persons other than the judge or agent". A person may not always have clear words to articulate, yet simultaneously knows it to be true.
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