[lbo-talk] Mirror neurons

[Miles Jackson]

Wojtek Sokolowski wrote:
> Miles:
>
> The way that most psychologists finesse this is by assuming that 
> people can accurately report their psychological states.  In empathy 
> studies with children, researchers show them a scenario and ask them 
> what the person in the scenario is feeling or experiencing.  If the 
> child provides a meaningful report ("someone said something mean to 
> her, so she's sad"), then most psychologists will say the child has 
> empathy.
>
>
> [WS:] So what makes you think that animals are incapable of experiencing
> emotional states similar to those reported by children?  You seem to fall
> into the fallacy of interpreting the absence of evidence as the evidence of
> absence.
>
>   
No, I'm saying that we can't reliably know what the animal is 
experiencing by freely interpreting their behavior; the behavior can't 
"speak for itself" to illuminate the psychological state within.  If a 
cat or a chimp "cries", why should we automatically assume that the 
psychological state of the animal is equivalent to that of a person who 
cries?  I freely admit it could be similar; however, it is also possible 
that a chimp who cries has a psychological experience that is nothing 
like what humans experience.   We have no way of verifying either 
position, as far as I can see.  Call me agnostic.

Miles