Re: Empathy

On Thu, Dec 20, 2012 at 7:22 PM, Alan Forrester
<alanmichaelforrester-gM/[email protected]> wrote:
>
>
>
>
> On 20 Dec 2012, at 11:19, hibbsa <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> >
> >
> > --- In [email protected], Brett Hall <brhalluk@...>
> > wrote:
> >>
> >> On 17/12/2012, at 19:22, "hibbsa" <asbbih@...> wrote:
> >>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> --- In [email protected], Elliot Temple <curi@> wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> On Dec 16, 2012, at 11:15 AM, hibbsa <asbbih@> wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Something that might be helpful to a discussion about empathy would
> >>>>> be
> >>>>> if particapants disclose whether they personally consistently
> >>>>> experience
> >>>>> what they assume must be meant by 'empathy'. Not everyone does.
> >>>>
> >>>> Stop trying to invade people's privacy.
> >>>>
> >>>> -- Elliot Temple
> >>>> http://fallibleideas.com/
> >>>>
> >>>
> >>> Voluntary disclosure doesn't involve any kind of invasion that I can
> >>> see. So the question would be the relevance/importance to the discussion of
> >>> what is suggested.
> >>> About that I would say that, if you don't experience the sensation of
> >>> empathy, and never have...then you about as useful to people that do or have
> >>> as a blind man is to a discussion about the visual sensation of colour.
> >>>
> >> Is this what emotions are like? Is empathy, poorly defined as it is, a
> >> quale like the perception of some colour?
> >>
> >> Brett.
> >>
> >> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> >>
> >
> > From what I can make of it, empathy is linked in with social instinct
> > (Or call it social static memes if you prefer...in the end once 'static
> > memes' have been worked through to their consequences I suspect there aren't
> > going to be that many differences)
>
> People don't have instincts, only knowledge they haven't questioned yet.
>
> Empathy is just a word for certain responses that the particular audience
> in question happens to like. If a man shoots a burglar who comes into his
> house, lefties might insist we should have empathy for the burglar, while
> righties might say we should have empathy for the shooter.
>
>
> > Not everyone has it. Psychopaths don't get empathy. Autism/Asperger's
> > have less empathy which may be part of the reason for the tendency to be
> > socially isolated, unable to grasp social cues and so on.
> >
> > What is the difference and similarity between psychopathy and autism
> > spectrum disorders would be of potential interest.
>
> Psychopathy and autism are both labels for behaviour that psychiatrists
> dislike: the difference between them is arbitrary and of no interest.
>
> Alan
>

The way it looks to me, you and others make a great deal of physical
claims that amount to predictions. Which would mean they are
falsifiable. So given you have moved onto falsifiable territory why
not formalize it, and make clear what the stakes are? If mirror
neurons are physically demonstrated at some point, what in your
philosophy will be falsified? How big will it be for what you believe?
Likewise if it is proven there is a subset of people with brains that
do not work in the same way and that this does not change throughout
life regardless of philosophy or experience, what will be falsified?
Stand behind what you believe and say what is at stake.