You seem to be implying that something is moral if it makes others feel good and something is immoral if it makes others feel bad? — Michael
You seem to be implying that empathy is something that makes others feel good or bad, without reference to the accessibility of moral truths? — Galuchat
Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. Therefore if empathy is a means to access moral truths then moral truths have something to do with the feelings of others. Correct? — Michael
Empathy is identification with, and the vicarious experience of, the thoughts and/or feelings of another person.
Empathy has affective and cognitive components:
(1) Affective Empathy: the capacity to understand the emotional conditions of others.
(2) Cognitive Empathy: the capacity to understand the cognitive conditions of others.
Rogers K, Dziobek I, Hassenstab J, Wolf OT, Convit A (Apr 2007). "Who Cares? Revisiting Empathy in Asperger Syndrome". J Autism Dev Discord 37 (4): 709–15. doi:10.1007/s10803-006-0197-8. PMID 16906462.
http://www.cog.psy.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/papers/2007/Rogers(2007)_JAutismDevDisord.pdf — Galuchat
So what does that have to do with moral truths? — Michael
As I said, you seem to be implying that rightness and wrongness have something to do with the emotional (or cognitive) conditions of others (and my assumption is that you're implying that rightness is concerned with "positive" conditions and wrongness with "negative" conditions. — Michael
It has to do with defining empathy, which is important since we appear to have different ideas about what empathy is, unless you now prefer my definition to your own? — Galuchat
It seems rather that more definitions are required. Rightness and wrongness have nothing to do with defining what is moral and what is immoral (i.e., accessing moral truths).
So what does empathy, as you've defined it, have to do with moral truths? — Michael
Empathy is an ethical perception faculty which develops after theory of mind has been attained (between 2-7 years of age per Jean Piaget). It informs the ethical interpretation of social situations (except in the case of mental disorders such as psychopathy), cf. Francis Hutcheson's Moral Sense.
Empathy permits a judgement to be made regarding the experience of others in terms of one's self (i.e., a decision is made regarding experience goodness or badness). This results in the acquisition of ethical knowledge, hence; a person's morality construct develops in parallel with mental maturation, personal experience, and social influences. — Galuchat
But until you explain the relationship between the thoughts and/or feelings of another and moral truths, this claim isn't justified. — Michael
If truth is an accurate description of experience, and I decide my experience of this is good and my experience of that is bad, those are moral truths (albeit subjective ones). — Galuchat
By "good experience" and "bad experience" do you mean "moral experience" and "immoral experience"? — Michael
If so then I'd question the concept of a moral/immoral experience. What are such things? — Michael
A moral experience pertains to the satisfaction of, and an immoral experience pertains to the frustration of, a fundamental human need, as defined by Manfred Max-Neef, et al. — Galuchat
If there were inaccessible moral truths, what would be the mechanism by which one would know there were such truths?
How about a transcendental method? Kant does not prove morality (or evil), he accepts that both are real. All you have to do is look around to see examples of both. Kant tried to determine the form of the transcendental principles necessary for there to be a moral law. The transcendental in itself is inaccessible to our understanding, forming a limit on what we can know, but which we can still can think. — Cavacava
Empathy is an ethical perception faculty — Galuchat
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