(April 10, 2023 at 3:28 pm)Anomalocaris Wrote:(April 10, 2023 at 3:15 pm)emjay Wrote: I was not meaning it in an abstract sense, but just generalising by using the word negative. Nor was I thinking about the global/social meaning of empathy but just the fact that for an individual, empathy allows you to understand or envisage another's suffering, and the mere thought of that is often unpleasant enough to drive action to reduce or prevent the imagined thing continuing/occurring.
But why should we feel empathy, or feel uncomfortable with th suffering of another? The answer is probably the presence of the propensity for empathy serves the individual in a community by enhancing the chance that collective effort will be devoted by the community to reducing the individual’s suffering. Therefore the propensity has selfish value for the individual.
Okay fair enough, that seems a reasonable theory, but just in terms of actual, conscious motives for action, it seems it is not transactional and/or related to self-worth even if it can be considered selfish at that more indirect/social propensity level as per your theory.
