On Fri, Apr 11, 2014 at 6:34 PM, Eubulides <[email protected]> wrote:
> Empathy is an emotion that can be expressed in a staggering variety of > contexts. Attaching the label of ethical or moral to such an emotion does > little to facilitate understanding of such behavior. It is only long > historico-linguistic practices which we take for granted that leads many to > believe morality is real in the same way that it is nothing more than > historico-linguistic practices that lead people to believe in gods. > With due respect, I have no idea what you are talking about. Let me remind you of the context of this conversation. Carrol Cox said, "Does anyone remember the day when as (say) a 5-year old you suddenly gasped and said, Behold, Murder is Wrontg!", apparently suggesting that there is no innate sense telling people that it is "wrong" to murder other people. In response I linked to an article that cited research showing that infants do not like to see other beings suffering pain. This suggests to me that even babies have a sense of right and wrong. This is the very definition of an ethical or moral sense. And since we are dealing with infants, this has nothing to do with "historico-linguistic practices". What has any of this got to do with whether or not empathy is "expressed in a staggering variety of contexts"? -raghu.
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