[lbo-talk] High Hat (Was other things)

[ravi]

On 17 Jun, 2007, at 10:03 PM, andie nachgeborenen wrote:
>
> (Empathy in general is really hard because it involves
> paying close analytical and sympathetic attention to
> others. As you and the other people who are blowing
> off Brian are showing -- I mean, that empathy is
> hard.)

The dictionary says empathy means "the ability to understand and  
share the feelings of another". I think that is fairly natural in  
human beings, and would be hard to overcome (other than for  
sociopaths) -- the overcoming probably requires a lot of smartness  
and analytical attention ;-). Empathy, as defined above, seems to not  
just include, but be primarily about the case where one human being  
is able to understand without direct experience the condition of  
another. Whether this is possible through theorising or through  
defining traits of humanity, I am not sure.

	--ravi