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But that's how it's generally defined, e.g. wikipedia: "Empathy is the capacity to recognize feelings that are being experienced by another sentient [...] bein

• dmix 14y ago
  Although tempting, debating the meaning of empathy is probably not a beneficial contribution to this HN thread. But I will say, the initial emotional response (for ex. feeling sad someone was harmed) is largely out of our control. But spending time feeling bad after the fact is a controllable state, and is the basis of a large amount of psychological and behavioral therapy.
  • ktizo 14y ago
    Although tempting, debating the meaning of empathy is probably not a beneficial contribution to this HN thread. Surely, given the subject, it is extremely relevant.
    • Radix_ 14y ago
      But it's beside the point dmix is making and distraction from the central point of this thread. This sort of distraction, subtle changes of topic, is a common way discussions fail. If done deliberately it's also a way to appear to have won an argument.