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Empathy does not seem to be an involuntary ability like eyesight or smell. We smell regardless of the circumstances, but empathy can be keen or absent. Empath

by dkarl 10y ago

Empathy does not seem to be an involuntary ability like eyesight or smell. We smell regardless of the circumstances, but empathy can be keen or absent. Empathy for someone seems to come naturally to the extent that they can be helpful or loyal to us, and it requires discipline to extend our empathy to those who are useless or opposed to us. It is interesting that the ability for someone to be a powerful force in our lives does not naturally elicit empathy for them. It suggests that we suppress empathy when we anticipate the need to act aggressively towards someone. Empathy for our enemies could be very valuable except that it might make us hesitate to hurt or kill them. We can see this in the U.S. elections right now, when both sides encourage us to believe that the motivations of the other side's voters are either inscrutable or malevolent.

bubo_bubo 10y ago
>Empathy does not seem to be an involuntary ability like eyesight or smell. But my wife has accused me of selective hearing... /rimshot I'm here all week. Try the veal.
pessimizer 10y ago
Empathy isn't a sense, it's derivative from the senses and works by analogy with one's self. When what you sense from others seems similar to what you imagine others sense from you, by analogy you imagine that they have a similar inner life to you. The more difference from how you imagine that others would sense you, the more different you imagine their inner life to be from yours. When you see them to be similar to you, but more perfect in your opinion, you imagine that their inner life is more perfected than yours. If you see them as less contrived; less put together, you see their thought process as more honest, or more grounded than yours. If you see them as dirty or sloppy, you imagine their thoughts to be more perverse or more slipshod. If their movements or speech are slower than yours, you imagine them to be more stupid or more careful than you are. It's the search for souls in other people, required to decide whether they feel pain in the same way that you do. You can never confirm that other people have souls and feel pain, it's a leap of faith that you have to make - what Hobbes would call a covenant - a unilateral agreement that you make with others without their participation in the hope that your good faith will lead them to reciprocate. It's best if we just assume that everyone else is just like ourselves, and reserve our distrust for people that try to tell us otherwise.
- yummyfajitas 10y ago
  Empathy is a catch-all phrase describing two separate concepts, and the psychological literature is careful to distinguish them: Cognitive empathy is the ability to know what others are feeling. Affective empathy is when cognitive empathy causes you to have similar feelings to others. It's best if we just assume that everyone else is just like ourselves, and reserve our distrust for people that try to tell us otherwise. No, this is the typical mind fallacy, where we assume our mind is typical. It'll fail you wildly if you leave your local culture.

by dkarl 10y ago

bubo_bubo 10y ago

>Empathy does not seem to be an involuntary ability like eyesight or smell. But my wife has accused me of selective hearing... /rimshot I'm here all week. Try the veal.

pessimizer 10y ago

Empathy isn't a sense, it's derivative from the senses and works by analogy with one's self. When what you sense from others seems similar to what you imagine others sense from you, by analogy you imagine that they have a similar inner life to you. The more difference from how you imagine that others would sense you, the more different you imagine their inner life to be from yours. When you see them to be similar to you, but more perfect in your opinion, you imagine that their inner life is more perfected than yours. If you see them as less contrived; less put together, you see their thought process as more honest, or more grounded than yours. If you see them as dirty or sloppy, you imagine their thoughts to be more perverse or more slipshod. If their movements or speech are slower than yours, you imagine them to be more stupid or more careful than you are. It's the search for souls in other people, required to decide whether they feel pain in the same way that you do. You can never confirm that other people have souls and feel pain, it's a leap of faith that you have to make - what Hobbes would call a covenant - a unilateral agreement that you make with others without their participation in the hope that your good faith will lead them to reciprocate. It's best if we just assume that everyone else is just like ourselves, and reserve our distrust for people that try to tell us otherwise.

yummyfajitas 10y ago
Empathy is a catch-all phrase describing two separate concepts, and the psychological literature is careful to distinguish them: Cognitive empathy is the ability to know what others are feeling. Affective empathy is when cognitive empathy causes you to have similar feelings to others. It's best if we just assume that everyone else is just like ourselves, and reserve our distrust for people that try to tell us otherwise. No, this is the typical mind fallacy, where we assume our mind is typical. It'll fail you wildly if you leave your local culture.