Evil = Lack of Empathy?

[Clinton Huxley]

Was listening to the Guardian science podcast yesterday and was struck by this interesting discussion with Simon Baron-Cohen re his new book, Zero Degrees of Empathy and his idea that evil should be redefined as a deficit of empathy.

Extended interview here:-

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/audio ... aron-cohen

Apparently, about 10 areas of the brain are implicated in "feelings of empathy" and it's when they go wrong that humans are able to regard other humans merely as objects, which can be broken without remorse or much emotion at all.

A scientific definition of "evil"....

[AshtonBlack]

Very interesting research indeed.

[Atheist-Lite]

It's his area. Whether the autistic community agrees with him depends on the form the retaliation takes?

[Gawdzilla Sama]

A cardinal characteristic of serial killers is a lack of empathy. They view their victims as objects. "It puts the lotion on its skin, or it gets the hose again."

[Atheist-Lite]

A cardinal characteristic of serial killers is a lack of empathy. They view their victims as objects. "It puts the lotion on its skin, or it gets the hose again."

Empathy is over-rated in human beings when you look at the species objectively. It's often the charming sociopath that'll put the knife in your back from a position of social power. Is there reaally a difference between charm and empathy? We're dealing with a black box here and it is so easy to see what we want to see especially when the truth hurts. The human species is a disgusting, depraved, ugly and hopelessly hypocritical pile of self-contradictions destined for the garbage heap of the fossil record. Empathy, that's why the movies and games markets are full of body counts? That's not my problem, it's yours.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

A cardinal characteristic of serial killers is a lack of empathy. They view their victims as objects. "It puts the lotion on its skin, or it gets the hose again."

Empathy is over-rated in human beings when you look at the species objectively. It's often the charming sociopath that'll put the knife in your back from a position of social power. Is there reaally a difference between charm and empathy? We're dealing with a black box here and it is so easy to see what we want to see especially when the truth hurts. The human species is a disgusting, depraved, ugly and hopelessly hypocritical pile of self-contradictions destined for the garbage heap of the fossil record. Empathy, that's why the movies and games markets are full of body counts? That's not my problem, it's yours.

Empathy is used in movies to make the death of a character more impactful. If you don't care whether that person lives or dies, it's just a bloody spot on the floor. But if they've been happy, funny, helpful and positive all the way through and get killed just as they're boarding the chopper to safety there's more power to the scene. For some of us, anyway.

[Sisifo]

A cardinal characteristic of serial killers is a lack of empathy. They view their victims as objects. "It puts the lotion on its skin, or it gets the hose again."

Empathy is over-rated in human beings when you look at the species objectively. It's often the charming sociopath that'll put the knife in your back from a position of social power. Is there reaally a difference between charm and empathy? We're dealing with a black box here and it is so easy to see what we want to see especially when the truth hurts. The human species is a disgusting, depraved, ugly and hopelessly hypocritical pile of self-contradictions destined for the garbage heap of the fossil record. Empathy, that's why the movies and games markets are full of body counts? That's not my problem, it's yours.

Down of my appartment in Senegal there was a leper whose sight was spine chilling. No fingers, no feet, no nose, half of his lips missing and many other body parts. He was literally falling apart. The memory of him scratching his face -the only way to do it was to rub it against the pavement- gives me the goosebumps. People and children would throw stones to him to keep him away. I used to give him the change and a couple of cigarrettes every morning on my way to the office. One morning I saw him laughing his ass off, and I told him that I was surprised that he had kept his good humour despite everything. He answered: "why? some things are funny, sick or not".

[devogue]

A cardinal characteristic of serial killers is a lack of empathy. They view their victims as objects. "It puts the lotion on its skin, or it gets the hose again."

Empathy is over-rated in human beings when you look at the species objectively. It's often the charming sociopath that'll put the knife in your back from a position of social power. Is there reaally a difference between charm and empathy? We're dealing with a black box here and it is so easy to see what we want to see especially when the truth hurts. The human species is a disgusting, depraved, ugly and hopelessly hypocritical pile of self-contradictions destined for the garbage heap of the fossil record. Empathy, that's why the movies and games markets are full of body counts? That's not my problem, it's yours.

Down of my appartment in Senegal there was a leper whose sight was spine chilling. No fingers, no feet, no nose, half of his lips missing and many other body parts. He was literally falling apart. The memory of him scratching his face -the only way to do it was to rub it against the pavement- gives me the goosebumps. People and children would throw stones to him to keep him away. I used to give him the change and a couple of cigarrettes every morning on my way to the office. One morning I saw him laughing his ass off, and I told him that I was surprised that he had kept his good humour despite everything. He answered: "why? some things are funny, sick or not".

Post of the century.

[Azathoth]

how did he manage to light the cigarettes

[Sisifo]

how did he manage to light the cigarettes

Never saw him smoking any. He just asked me once for one, that I left in his palm, and I kept giving him a couple every morning...

[Atheist-Lite]

That's the thing about so called 'empathy', amazing how it always belongs to the ingroup with the most stones.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

That's the thing about so called 'empathy', amazing how it always belongs to the ingroup with the most stones.

That made even less sense than normal for you.

[Atheist-Lite]

That's the thing about so called 'empathy', amazing how it always belongs to the ingroup with the most stones.

That made even less sense than normal for you.

At least I haven't got a entire thread dedicated to my confused utterances just yet, just yet.

[Tero]

You gotta economize your empathy. Too many people on the planet, can't cover them all. I'll restrict my empathy to my clan.

[.Morticia.]

Was listening to the Guardian science podcast yesterday and was struck by this interesting discussion with Simon Baron-Cohen re his new book, Zero Degrees of Empathy and his idea that evil should be redefined as a deficit of empathy.

Extended interview here:-

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/audio ... aron-cohen

Apparently, about 10 areas of the brain are implicated in "feelings of empathy" and it's when they go wrong that humans are able to regard other humans merely as objects, which can be broken without remorse or much emotion at all.

A scientific definition of "evil"....

This is a bad thing.

At the moment we judge people by what they do, not what they are.

This is just another step in changing how we think of crime and think of people. Right now people are presumed innocent . This research could change everyone into presumed guilty.