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fandomhigh2024-08-13 01:35 pm
endsthegame) wrote in fandomhigh2024-08-13 01:35 pm
Entry tags:
Practical Philosophy, Tuesday
"Empathy," Ender began, "Is a skill that is fundamentally neutral in nature. We like to perceive it as 'good' - as if to understand another means we will immediately be kind as well. But those two concepts are completely separate from one another. You can be violently emphatic and yet utterly violent to someone at the same time."
Hem.
"Over the years, many philosophers have busied themselves with the study of what empathy truly is, and whether we should care for it," he said. "For instance, Nietzsche, ever cheerful, described empathy as 'to imitate another's feelings within ourselves'. To act on it with compassion was little more than putting a pretty face on pity."
He picked up his bottle of water. "Meanwhile, Edmund Husserl sees empathy as a form of awareness; an intention to observe the feelings of those around you, and being able to do so without necessarily having experienced or experiencing those feelings yourself. He sees a difference between this kind of intentional, intuitive observation and the observations of science. We see the other person as another person, not as a thing to be studied, when we practice empathy."
He took a sip of his water and sat back. "Nietzsche gets at the heart of something called simulation theory: the idea that empathy is what happens when we observe an emotion and try to reproduce it in ourselves, so we might understand the other person. Theory of Mind, on the other hand, is the idea that we all have some rules in our minds for how people ought to think and feel, and we practice empathy by applying those rules to another person and coming to a conclusion. This is also known as 'cognitive empathy'."
"How do you feel when you emphatize with someone else?" he asked. "Do you do it cognitively, reasoning through why they must feel that way? Do you attempt to reproduce what they might be feeling? Or do you simply observe and assume? Can you remember a moment where you looked at another person and knew, intimately, how they felt and why? What is empathy to you?"
Hem.
"Over the years, many philosophers have busied themselves with the study of what empathy truly is, and whether we should care for it," he said. "For instance, Nietzsche, ever cheerful, described empathy as 'to imitate another's feelings within ourselves'. To act on it with compassion was little more than putting a pretty face on pity."
He picked up his bottle of water. "Meanwhile, Edmund Husserl sees empathy as a form of awareness; an intention to observe the feelings of those around you, and being able to do so without necessarily having experienced or experiencing those feelings yourself. He sees a difference between this kind of intentional, intuitive observation and the observations of science. We see the other person as another person, not as a thing to be studied, when we practice empathy."
He took a sip of his water and sat back. "Nietzsche gets at the heart of something called simulation theory: the idea that empathy is what happens when we observe an emotion and try to reproduce it in ourselves, so we might understand the other person. Theory of Mind, on the other hand, is the idea that we all have some rules in our minds for how people ought to think and feel, and we practice empathy by applying those rules to another person and coming to a conclusion. This is also known as 'cognitive empathy'."
"How do you feel when you emphatize with someone else?" he asked. "Do you do it cognitively, reasoning through why they must feel that way? Do you attempt to reproduce what they might be feeling? Or do you simply observe and assume? Can you remember a moment where you looked at another person and knew, intimately, how they felt and why? What is empathy to you?"