The Meaning of Kindness

By (author) Joanna Szafran By (author) Anna Cwojdzińska

Book cover: The Meaning of Kindness

Extent: 149 pages

Publisher: V&R unipress

Subjects: Slavic Studies, Social Sciences 

Language: English

Hardback (Published)

(January 2024)

ISBN: 9783847116806

6.3 x 9.33 inches

Price: $62.00

In stock

Scholarly reflection on kindness raises a variety of issues and perspectives. In order to consider the impact of kindness on various aspects of human existence, it is first necessary to give it a concrete meaning. This seemingly simple task turns out to be quite challenging. The prevailing definitional chaos in the literature, the lack of consensus on basic terminological assumptions, indicates a deficit in the theoretical understanding of the concept of kindness and, perhaps more importantly, poses a problem when attempting to verify existing empirical findings, raising doubts about the generalizability of the conclusions and possible comparative studies.


Scholarly reflection on kindness raises a variety of issues and perspectives. In order to consider the impact of kindness on various aspects of human existence, it is first necessary to give it a concrete meaning. This seemingly simple task turns out to be quite challenging. The prevailing definitional chaos in the literature, the lack of consensus on basic terminological assumptions, indicates a deficit in the theoretical understanding of the concept of kindness and, perhaps more importantly, poses a problem when attempting to verify existing empirical findings, raising doubts about the generalizability of the conclusions and possible comparative studies. The book is an attempt to clarify the definition of the phenomenon of kindness. It is the result of the first research of its kind and carried out on such a scale in Poland. The main aim of the study was to determine how Polish youth understands the concept of kindness.

  • By (author) Joanna Szafran
  • By (author) Anna Cwojdzińska