Play
The spirited and creative pursuit of joy for the sake of joy.
Competitiveness
Humans are often intensely competitive. For example, they create competition in play, sports and games.
Growth
A desire for growth and improvement. This can take many forms from simple financial accumulation to growth as a person.
Risk Taking
The bravery and imagination to take calculated risks.
Inventiveness
Creativity, imagination and the ability to design and create nonobvious concepts and things of value.
Rational Thought
The ability to think in reasonable ways including different modes of thinking such as logic and emotional intelligence.
Abstraction
Abstraction is the ability to think in ways that differ from physical reality. For example, a concept such as freedom that has no specific physical representation.
Empathy
The ability to share states of mind with others by imagining how they feel.
Aesthetics
A sense of appreciation and creativity with regard to the senses. For example, the appreciation of music or fashion.
Compassion
The capacity to care for others.
Humility
Recognition and acceptance of external realities. For example, recognizing that your theories could be wrong or that you have limited control over certain things.
Hope
Hope is the capacity to look beyond current realities by considering future possibilities.
Self Discipline
The ability to act in ways that differ from what you want to do in order to achieve some result. For example, a capacity to endure highly structured music lessons in order to master an instrument.
Civility
The discipline to resolve differences in a respectful and reasonable manner.
Creative Tension
Creative tension is an ability to argue with others and push for what you think is right in a society, community or group. This implies a tolerance for disagreement and an ability to remain civil while remaining engaged and vocal.
Adaptability
The ability to change in response to change.
Introspection
The human capacity to consider one's own character, thought processes and emotion in order to reflect and adapt.
Culture
Culture includes anything that is done to make life meaningful beyond mere survival, material competition, comfort and safety. For example, art, literature and film.
Heritage
Heritage is culture that is passed from one generation to the next. For example, a traditional holiday.
Reciprocity
Reciprocity is the desire to repay kindnesses.
Forgiveness
A capacity to forgive others.
Redemption
The ability to redeem or atone for a fault or mistake.
Relatedness
A desire to engage with others and with the events of your time and place.
Unaffectedness
Humans are inherently social and tend to care what others think of them. Some are able to transcend this to be themselves with little concern for how they are perceived. This could be described as unaffectedness.
Acceptance
A general capacity to accept life's ups and downs without becoming arrogant in success or despondent in failure and loss.
Tolerance
The capacity to accept others for who they are without being overly judgemental.
Spirituality
Humans may ponder advanced philosophical questions regarding the nature of the universe. A large number of people on a global basis adhere to religious beliefs.
Altruism
The capacity to do good without the expectation of any reward.
Human Condition
Humans are mortal and fallible. In many cases, their lives are difficult and filled with suffering and mistakes. This is known as the human condition.
Resilience
Resilience is the capacity to endure and thrive in the face of problems and failures. Your ancestors survived the perils of history to make you possible and this resilience is likely to be a part of you.
Wonder
A sense of amazement and appreciation for mystery or beauty.
Notes
The term humanity is often used to describe the value of all things human including humans themselves and the products of human civilization such as culture and heritage.The list above isn't exhaustive. For example, there are many virtues and human capacities that aren't listed.| Overview: Humanity | ||
Type | ||
Definition (1) | The collective characteristics of human beings. | |
Related Concepts | ||
