Originally Posted by
Paul
Originally Posted by
schrödinger's cat
We might believe that our minds are separate entities, and that contact is only possible via the five senses. Or we might believe that our minds can sort of overlap at the edges, and that communication can therefore occur directly.
On reread, I may have issues with the above. My full argument against this one though would require me to figure out consciousness though. Ugghhh, consciousness, why does the universe deem it necessary????
Seems I've expressed myself awkwardly. Sorry. I meant to say this:
We know about others' emotions. How do we do that? Two theories are possible:
(1) We perceive them indirectly. We perceive small signs (like dilated pupils, slight changes of posture etc.) and they are like a code we can crack.
(2) We perceive them directly. Soul touches soul.
Now, what do we believe is true? Theory (1) or (2), or both? We could discuss this endlessly. Our opinions will probably depend on this: What is the soul, and how does it communicate? Let's say there are 4 possible theories on this:
(A) Human beings don't have souls. Our consciousness is a product of bodily processes. There is nothing else. Empathy works by reading someone else's body language and smelling his sweat, whatever. There is no other way. Everything else is delusion and/or mere chance.
(B) Human beings have souls, but they are tied to their bodies and cannot communicate directly. Empathy works by reading someone's body language etc.
(C) Same as (B), but with the belief that souls can sometimes communicate directly. Empathy works
generally by reading someone's body language, but it
can occasionally work by perceiving the emotion directly. Thus, you might "know" out of the blue that someone close to you (who is far away) is in danger or has died. You might walk into a room and "perceive" a certain powerful emotion (like strong suffering), and later on hear that this room was the scene of a crime.
(D) Human beings have souls. We are all of us connected to all living things, and therefore we can communicate directly, without the help of sight, sound, taste, smell or touch. Empathy usually works by perceiving emotions, not by perceiving body language caused by emotions. Some of us who are good at perceiving this interconnectedness and this enables them to read other people's emotions. Others aren't aware of it and therefore they lack empathy.
If we talk about how empathy works, it'll probably help if we're aware of those four basic assumptions. Otherwise someone who believes in (A) and someone who leans more to (D) might get into terrible quarrels without ever knowing what the problem was.
I'm probably making this unnecessarily complicated. But at least I've now expressed it all clearly... I hope.
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