If “empathy” means “ability to understand the feelings of others” or “ability to predict what others will do”, then it seems straightforward that empathy is learnable. And learnability and teachability seem basically the same to me. Examples indicating that empathy is learnable:
As you get to know someone, things go more smoothly when you’re with them
Socializing is easier when you’ve been doing a lot of it (at least, I think so)
Those definitions of “empathy” are, however, totally inconsistent with Ben’s mention of mirror neurons; so I doubt that this is what he had in mind.
(Your argument is actually problematic for several other reasons, but the aforesaid inconsistency makes your points inapplicable, so it’s not necessary to spend the time to demonstrate the other problems.)
If “empathy” means “ability to understand the feelings of others” or “ability to predict what others will do”, then it seems straightforward that empathy is learnable. And learnability and teachability seem basically the same to me. Examples indicating that empathy is learnable:
As you get to know someone, things go more smoothly when you’re with them
Socializing is easier when you’ve been doing a lot of it (at least, I think so)
Managers are regularly trained for their job
Those definitions of “empathy” are, however, totally inconsistent with Ben’s mention of mirror neurons; so I doubt that this is what he had in mind.
(Your argument is actually problematic for several other reasons, but the aforesaid inconsistency makes your points inapplicable, so it’s not necessary to spend the time to demonstrate the other problems.)