someone answer for me a question.

what is a positive function of empathy that can be ascribed to empathy alone and not to any other mechanism?
so it's impossible to be moral without empathy? https://twitter.com/lacking_sleep/status/1297379365924339714?s=19
you think any person with morals but without empathy is just aping the behaviour of others? https://twitter.com/lacking_sleep/status/1297382561208061955?s=19
I've had some small success with listening to what people say and then believing them. https://twitter.com/Rennat456/status/1297384110940454912?s=19
because I generally treat people in a way similar to how I would like to be treated, and when I describe my experiences to someone I expect to be believed? https://twitter.com/Rennat456/status/1297385174947307522?s=19
I graduated kindergarten. "treat others how you'd like to be treated" was on the syllabus, right there with "wash your hands before you eat" and "put the toys away when you're done." https://twitter.com/Rennat456/status/1297386848776593409?s=19
well, I guess it's a good thing I don't make my living as a writer or anything. https://twitter.com/rosie_bee__/status/1297388016470765569?s=19
*crumples up my human biology degree* https://twitter.com/Gaethan35/status/1297390320594882561?s=19
because I don't have any. https://twitter.com/ChrisSerong/status/1297337292214767616?s=19
so does our species developing a fully-realised sense of self, which is, by the way, the actual first step to understanding that other people have selves too. https://twitter.com/Gaethan35/status/1297390798061936640?s=19
I personally never matured past the age of four. it's why my skin looks so incredible. you *think* I'm a very well-preserved person in my thirties, but I'm actually just an extremely tired small child. https://twitter.com/DeishunLeft/status/1297391082645393409?s=19
I was told to do it. I thought about it for awhile. I agreed that it seemed logical as a way of getting what I wanted with a minimum of needlessly depriving other people of what they wanted, which is generally pointless. I adapted it as an ethical tenet. https://twitter.com/Rennat456/status/1297391641297223681?s=19
the answers so far seem to be along the lines of "you need it so you'll be good to other people" so it is with great sorrow that I must announce that not only can I never be good to anyone ever again, but any good I may have done in the past is retroactively invalid.
I don't have empathy, by the way. never seemed to be able to get the knack of it.

if you really think that people cannot be moral, kind, compassionate or insightful without empathy, you might want to unfollow me.
I can't answer this for you. what's it like to have empathy? I have nothing to which I can compare my experience. https://twitter.com/waitworry/status/1297393072943312896?s=19
because it's a waste of energy and resources if it doesn't get you something you want? why is any pointless thing pointless? https://twitter.com/Rennat456/status/1297393854434488326?s=19
this is such a strange question. for the most part, I don't *gain* anything by treating people cruelly, so why expend the time and energy to do it? not having empathy doesn't mean that my default state is wanting other people to suffer. my default state is not thinking about it.
after years of observation and thought, I have come to the conclusion that caring about other people's wellbeing, though it does sometimes require me to expend resources for little or no immediate gain, creates a net benefit to society, of which I am a part.
I would like to live in a world in which I am treated equitably. this requires that I treat other people equitably (because otherwise, what guarantee would I have that they would treat me the same way?), even if this is sometimes inconvenient.
I lack empathy, not emotions. I like to feel happy, safe and loved. I enjoy seeing people I care about feeling happy, safe and loved. I don't enjoy feeling hurt, upset or endangered. I can extrapolate from this that other people do not enjoy those things either.
I have a sense of self. it developed when I was around three, like it does in most humans. I understand that other people have selves, and also needs and desires that sometimes conflict with and sometimes converge with mine. I don't need to feel that; I just know that.
I find it very strange that you feel the need to ascribe to me something I do not experience before you'll believe that I have feelings or am capable of caring about other people. is that what empathy is? projection? https://twitter.com/Rennat456/status/1297396702551388160?s=19
well, the years of therapy have helped. https://twitter.com/Gaethan35/status/1297397092881780741?s=19
I don't understand what people mean when they say you must feel another person's feelings to understand them, but I don't go around telling people they must not have empathy just because they're capable of doing the things I can do.
I have developed, after years of therapy, what people call "cognitive empathy" - a way of processing other people's feelings logically. it was a great deal of work at first, but I'm told that over the last decade, I have made a lot of improvement. https://twitter.com/kjccreates/status/1297398876077543424?s=19
this is a good question and one I cannot answer. I have no idea what a society where I was the norm would look like because I've never experienced it. but I would like to think we would have evolved other ways of being kind to each other. https://twitter.com/waitworry/status/1297400836730036225?s=19
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