Another problem I see in the article is that it calls upon guilt as one of the possible “replacements” for empathy, but
guilt to me is a consequence of empathy.
Not to mention that people seem to be really good at guilt-proofing themselves when they see it coming, or transferring their guilt onto things that do more to salve conscience than actually help a situation.
As someone on the autistic spectrum it’s been my impression that neurotypicals in my society really aren’t that great at empathy as a general thing—“strong empathy” seems to be a specific trait, like strong muscles or a gift for music. Typically NTs seem to be looking for adherence to recognizable scripts as a necessary precondition for empathy, and the moment the subject deviates from that their ability to empathize is gone—people do inconvenient or upsetting things “to get attention” or to annoy them, animals are reduced to two-bit animatrons or even deemed without subjective experience; in many cases even autistic people are read this way, and sociopaths if the person has a coherent idea of them will be thought to be this way (even as they miss the sociopath in their midst, who may be better at faking signalling).
I guess this paper doesn’t feel like a great takedown of empathy from my perspective, because the average person already seems to be fairly bad at it.
Not to mention that people seem to be really good at guilt-proofing themselves when they see it coming, or transferring their guilt onto things that do more to salve conscience than actually help a situation.
As someone on the autistic spectrum it’s been my impression that neurotypicals in my society really aren’t that great at empathy as a general thing—“strong empathy” seems to be a specific trait, like strong muscles or a gift for music. Typically NTs seem to be looking for adherence to recognizable scripts as a necessary precondition for empathy, and the moment the subject deviates from that their ability to empathize is gone—people do inconvenient or upsetting things “to get attention” or to annoy them, animals are reduced to two-bit animatrons or even deemed without subjective experience; in many cases even autistic people are read this way, and sociopaths if the person has a coherent idea of them will be thought to be this way (even as they miss the sociopath in their midst, who may be better at faking signalling).
I guess this paper doesn’t feel like a great takedown of empathy from my perspective, because the average person already seems to be fairly bad at it.