A Study of Analytical Comparison between the Concept of Pity and Fear and Hiri Ottappa

Abstract

Pity and Fear is dramatic Psychological concept written by Aristotle, an ancient Greek philosopher. It consists of some similar and different idea when it is taken to compare with the Buddhist Principle topic “LokapalaDhamma” or virtues that protect the world. The Lokapala Dhamma consists of Hiri or moral shame to perform the sinful action and Ottappa  or moral dread to do sinful action, namely, for the dramatic psychological concept presented in  Poetics, Pity means the way the audiences who watch the play get the feeling of pity to the main character or the protagonist of the tragedy play in accordance with this protagonist who must be the hero who faced the bad result from his unintentional action. Then, the audiences get the feeling of fear to face the bad result as same as the protagonist influenced to force themselves to avoid the bad doings and regard to avoid the failures in their life. It is similar to the concept in Hiri and Otappa in the point of external factors for the pity and fear and internal factors for Hiri and Ottappa in the Buddhist Principle of  Lokapala Dhamma.