そう、こう、ああ、どう confusion

Question

So, I am confused with the こそあど adverbs. I saw そういう in a song used like this. 博愛とか慈愛とかそういうの大切に扱ってよ。I am confused about the sentence 博愛とか慈愛とかそういうの. Does it literally mean "the thing that is felt (physical) or thought about called philanthropy and affection in a representation of far away from the speaker"? What is the proper way think of the adverbial こそあど? Only the adverbial form is confusing.

Answer 1

The literal translation should not be that long. This simply means:

博愛とか慈愛とかそういうの
benevolence, philanthropy and such

そういうの means "things like this/that/these", "something like this/these", "things along those lines", "such things", etc. You can remember this as a set phrase.

Usually, そういうX simply translates to "X like this/that" or "such (a) X":

• そういう人
  a person like that/this; such a person

If you want a word-by-word breakdown, そういうの literally means "things which [one] calls in such a way":

• そう: (adverb) in such a way
• いう: (verb) to call
• の: (noun) thing

それ/そう can refer to something just mentioned, just like English "it" can refer to anything regardless of its distance. 博愛/慈愛 is not even a tangible object, so you don't have to worry about how far it is.