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Why Empathy Is Not a Reliable Source of Information in Moral Decision Making
- lmilcin 5y agoIt may not be reliable, but is IMO necessary ingredient of moral decision making. With important understanding that there needs to be some kind of tradeoff between purely emphatic and purely logical approach to the problem. Empathy is what gives happiness and meaning to our miserable existence. We are social creatures and empathy is the basic mechanism of social interactions that lead to happiness.
- raxxorrax 5y agoIf there is no absolute morality, nothing would be a realiable source for decision making. Still interesting where and how it fails and how the author believes decisions can be improved. Not going to lie, the sources sound weird, but I lack access to them as well as the study.
- h2odragon 5y agoEmpathy is generated from information you already have, and is therefore not a "source of information" at all.
- morpheos137 5y agoWhen I see "empathy" nine times out of ten I read "virtue signaling." Many people claim to be empathetic but actually that is only as deep as what they are empathising with. If it harmonises with their world view then they have empathy. How many people have empathy for the Taliban? To me having a realistic theory of others minds is useful. Empathy less so. I also wonder how much empathy is actually projection. I mean empathy is you (think you) can feel as others do but how do you know you are actually not just feeling one way and assuming the others do too.