Franklin Evans in commenting on the last post suggested I host a
\ndiscussion of what these words mean because he says they are often
\nconfused by people.<\/p>\n
Perhaps they are. Let’s see,<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\nMy own perspective, put somehwat briefly is this:<\/p>\n
EMPATHY is the
\nability to put oneself in another’s shoes, either other people or
\nmyself at a future date because that future ‘me’ is different from ‘me’
\nright now. This means one cannot act in one’s long term self-interest
\nwithout the ability to epathize – to foresee future effects of our
\nactions and to care abut them. We care when we empathize. <\/p>\n
In my view empathy is the foundation for moral action – as was seen by Hume and
\nAdam Smith – and its lack is the defining characteristic of sociopaths. Our
\nability to empathize with others different from ourselves, as well as how deeply we empathize, comprise sliding
\nscales towards of our ability to enter into “Thou” relationships. <\/p>\n
It has a lot to do with some kinds of understanding and nothing much to do with agreement.<\/p>\n
UNDERSTANDING
\n– ‘Understanding’ is very complex. In our society this usually this
\nrefers to a logical process by which we can see what a claim means and
\nthe reasons behind it or it can take a more ‘gestalt’ form of seeing
\nthe meaning of a situation. Understanding the message of a deity takes
\nthis form in my experience. <\/p>\n
Understanding can bleed over into
\nrelying on empathy as well, for to understand another’s motives we
\noften need empathy. Thus, understanding is very contextual as to how it
\nis applied.<\/p>\n
I can understand an argument and not agree with it. <\/p>\n
AGREEMENT – seems to me obvious, and there are degrees of it. I hope you agree.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Franklin Evans in commenting on the last post suggested I host a discussion of what these words mean because he says they are often confused by people. Perhaps they are. Let’s see,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pagan-news"],"yoast_head":"\n