If you strangle that ability in yourself, perhaps I've been implying, the price you pay is that eventually you fail to be able to feel anything at all.
But is it? Have you any evidence whatsoever that people who don't "sympathetically understand how another person feels" don't feel anything?
. . . isn't that generally said of psycopaths and sociopaths? They cannot imagine other people's points of view, their hurts--and eventually, it is said, they don't seem to have a sense of "feeling" at all.
Sociopaths and psychopaths generally show signs of these traits from their earliest years, rather than progressively "strangling" some inborn empathy for others. There are a lot of different definitions floating around of "psychopath" and "sociopath." I haven't found one that says that eventually they don't have a sense of "feeling" at all, though such a definition may exist. However, their defining characteristic isn't that they can't imagine others' feelings, but that they don't care. In fact, some psychopathic killers derive pleasure from being able to imagine their victims' terror, even from "feeling" it with them.
Here may be a key point where we differ: To me, it is not necessary that one be able to imagine how another feels in order to care about what happens to that person. And it is not necessary to care what happens to another in order to still behave morally toward that person. All of this can be an intellectual process, with no emotional involvement at all. One can believe that the proper activity for a human is to treat other humans (or other living creatures) in a certain way, and that treatment may be indistinguishable from the treatment given by the most emotionally affected, empathetic person.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2004-07-23 04:37 pm (UTC)But is it? Have you any evidence whatsoever that people who don't "sympathetically understand how another person feels" don't feel anything?
. . . isn't that generally said of psycopaths and sociopaths? They cannot imagine other people's points of view, their hurts--and eventually, it is said, they don't seem to have a sense of "feeling" at all.
Sociopaths and psychopaths generally show signs of these traits from their earliest years, rather than progressively "strangling" some inborn empathy for others. There are a lot of different definitions floating around of "psychopath" and "sociopath." I haven't found one that says that eventually they don't have a sense of "feeling" at all, though such a definition may exist. However, their defining characteristic isn't that they can't imagine others' feelings, but that they don't care. In fact, some psychopathic killers derive pleasure from being able to imagine their victims' terror, even from "feeling" it with them.
Here may be a key point where we differ: To me, it is not necessary that one be able to imagine how another feels in order to care about what happens to that person. And it is not necessary to care what happens to another in order to still behave morally toward that person. All of this can be an intellectual process, with no emotional involvement at all. One can believe that the proper activity for a human is to treat other humans (or other living creatures) in a certain way, and that treatment may be indistinguishable from the treatment given by the most emotionally affected, empathetic person.