by Lazarus Black
I just learned that Russian does not have a word for "Empathy", specifically the ability to imagine oneself in another's life and experience their emotions in their situation.
There are many confusing articles on the subject, but this contains the clearest explanation: https://carnegieendowment.org/...
The words "sochuvstvie" ("сочувствие") and "soboleznovanie" ("сопереживание") are closer to sympathy. The word "sostrandanie" ("сострадание") means compassion. But empathy, the idea of putting yourself into somebody else's shoes as a way to think about the world, is a distinct concept. And it is not one that can be elegantly rendered into Russian.
-Mark Medish, JULY 06, 2009
It both explains a lot and horrifies me to no end. It DEFINITELY explains Ayn Rand. Obviously Russian people can feel this way, especially amongst loved ones, but not having a word to even discuss the concept of the practice beyond their loved ones just prevents the concept from teaching the population. I wonder if it once did exist, but was beaten out of the language by their centuries of despots. Because it is much easier to control a population if you can brutalize any portion you wish while the rest just watches, thankful it didn't happen to them, instead of rising up to end everyone's suffering together. That's how slavery ended and all forms of prejudice are waning elsewhere.
And it dwarfs the problems in the English speaking world that uses the singular term "Love" to encompass so many unique concepts into it. Icelandic, for instance, has at least 4 separate words for different aspects of Love. "Ást" (pr. like "Oust") is the projection of one's love onto any one or thing (e.g., people, teddy bears, a car, etc.). "Freist" (pr. close to "Frayst") is basking in the glow of love given you by another, but it does not mean reciprocation (e.g., accepting the adoration of a fan or a pet). And "Elsk" (Elskhugi) is a mutual sharing of a bond between two people's like in a marriage. "Ód" (i.e., the god Ó∂in) is pure raw passion which is more an intensity of emotion (e.g., an adrenaline rush) that blurs the line between lust and violence. Imagine how many stalkers would resolve their emotions and go away if we taught them that just because they feel Ód and Ást and their intended partner accepts it as Freist, does not mean they have built the mutual bond of Elsk that makes them a true couple.
I have studied languages for decades, and while not fluent in more than my own, I have learned enough to grok the subtle differences most simple dictionaries ignore. If you were to search online for the Russian word for "Empathy", you would find plenty of dictionaries providing words - but you can never trust single word translations and definitely not individual speakers of a language because they will have their own colloquial ignorance and influences.
I have studied languages for decades, and while not fluent in more than my own, I have learned enough to grok the subtle differences most simple dictionaries ignore.
In English, the word True has a very specific etymology and meaning as a whole, but countless people and published sources twist it's meaning to whatever they want. "True" meant "Straight" at first, and came to mean "Correct" because something perfectly straight was considered ideal. But if you ask a scientist why, they might tell you that it means the "perfectly straight and purest path between two facts". For instance, if you put an ice cube onto something hot, the repeatable and predictable truth is that the ice cube melts. And through a dozen other observation of facts, it leads to the further truth that heat energy looses the water molecules until they release from a solid state into a liquid. But Aristotle's truth were much different. Mostly because he replaced facts with truths. That water melted on hot coals and froze on cold stone meant to him that coals were adding their essense to the water to melt it and stone was adding it's essence to water to harden it. Today, its a very silly mistake - but this truth held power over people for centuries. If you ask a blindly religious person, they will take this to the extreme by throwing facts out entirely, linking their existing beliefs to personal or cultural observations and calling those truths, denying any other definition of their solution AND the very definition of the word truth. So even among English speakers, you have disagreement on when and how to use the word.
In Mandarin (and some closely-related languages), their word for the same concept is 真 Zhēn - but has a different etymology and therefore a different relationship in the language. And it is most often used as a part of a compound word to make it more clear:
Zhēn means "completely full" or "intact". It is commonly translated directly as "100%", and the average Mandarin speaker may not even see the direct relationship to "Truth" just as the average English Speaker may not see the direct relationship with "Straight".
And yet, there is an important difference between the words that explain how "Straight" and "Complete" may both represent aspects of truth, but are not identical. In English, a truth can be small. It can be just one relationship between two ideas. It can also be used to describe a complex relationship between ideas - but it doesn't need to be. But for something to be complete, it must automatically include many pieces, with a minimum of two ideas. And this is why Mandarin (etc.) uses compound words to describe the many unique aspects and uses of what English terms truth. Notice in the list of definitions above, there are five compound words in Mandarin that are simply defined as truth. That is because Mandarin has defined more aspects of it than English has. Just like Icelandic has more words for Love.
Mandarin does have a word that refers to both "straight path" and "correct", but it's use is very specific. 道 Tao (or Dao) refers to the "correct way of doing things", not unlike Egyptian Ma'at - but neither terms are equivalent to the English common truth.
I wrote a little more about this in another blog: https://www.lazarus.black/blog...
Ultimately, this new revelation magnifies the importance of learning multiple languages and sharing the teachings of great hearts and minds everywhere. You might find something valuable for yourself and teach something to someone else. Just don't proselytize without listening.