This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Notes
Human infants, for example, are capable of ‘emotional contagion’, a rudimentary form of empathy which Maibom considers in her introduction to the volume (p. 4). As Gruen and Andrews note in their contribution, this constitutes a kind of mimicry which doesn’t require advanced cognition (p. 195). By contrast, what’s often termed ‘cognitive empathy’ involves taking on the perspective of another in order to gain insight into their inner emotional life—this species of empathy does depend upon a more sophisticated psychology (pp. 195–196).
Batson uses empathetic concern to designate a range of emotions including ‘sympathy, compassion, tenderness, sadness, distress, concern and grief’ (p. 42). Following Maibom, empathetic concern seems best construed as sympathy, an empathetic emotion marked by its focus upon the welfare of another and a coarse-grained matching of emotion (for example, sadness when the other is negatively affected and happiness when the other is positively affected) (p. 6).
Batson offers a motivational definition of altruism, according to which it consists in a motivational state with the ultimate goal of increasing the welfare of another (p. 43).
Interestingly, McGeer resists approaching autism as a case of complete moral competence in the absence of cognitive empathy. Instead, she understands autistics’ ‘reverence or reason’ as playing a compensating role rather than as a foundation of full-fledged moral agency (2008a, p. 238).
I do not mean to suggest the implausible thesis that moral agency is constructed solely upon the capacity to experience fear and anxiety. As other contributors to the volume note, personal distress can in fact decrease helping behaviour (Batson; Spinrad and Eisenberg; Hoffman; Kaupinnen; Ugazio, Majjdandžić and Lamm). Rather, the fact that a deficiency in these emotions impairs moral agency within the psychopathic population and that the presence of these emotions plays a compensating role (re: McGeer) in the autistic population gestures towards their potential moral significance.
References
Blair R, Colledge E, Mitchell D (2001) Somatic markers and response reversal: is there orbitofrontal cortex dysfunction in boys with psychopathic tendencies? J Abnorm Child Psychol 29:499–511
Damasio A (1994) Descartes’ error: emotion, rationality and the human brain. Putnam, New York
de Vignemont F, Frith U (2008) Autism, morality and empathy. In: Sinnott-Armstrong W (ed) Moral psychology, volume 3: The Neuroscience of Morality: emotion, brain disorders, and development. MIT Press, Cambridge, pp 281–296
de Waal F (2006) Primates and philosophers: How morality evolved. Princeton University Press, Princeton
Elliott C (1992) Diagnosing blame: responsibility and the psychopath. J Med Philos 17:199–214
Fine C, Kennett J (2004) Mental impairment, moral understanding and criminal responsibility: psychopathy and the purposes of punishment. Int J Law Psychiatry 27:425–443
Flack JC, de Waal F (2000) Any animal whatever: darwinian building blocks of morality in monkeys and apes. J Consciousness Stud 7:1–29
Glannon W (1997) Psychopathy and responsibility. J Appl Philos 14:263–275
Hare R (1993) Without conscience: the disturbing world of psychopaths among us. Pocket Books, New York
Joyce R (2006) The evolution of morality. MIT Press, Cambridge
Kennett J (2002) Autism, empathy and moral agency. Philos Quart 52:340–357
Kohlberg L (1981) Essays on moral development, Vol. I: The philosophy of moral development. Harper & Row, San Francisco
Korsgaard C (2006) Morality and the distinctiveness of human action. In: Macedo S, Ober J (eds) Primates and philosophers: how morality evolved. Princeton University Press, Princeton, pp 98–119
Maibom H (2005) Moral unreason: the case of psychopathy. Mind Lang 20:237–257
McGeer V (2008a) Varieties of moral agency: lessons from autism (and psychopathy). In: Sinnott-Armstrong W (ed) Moral psychology, volume 3: the neuroscience of morality: emotion, brain disorders, and development. MIT Press, Cambridge, pp 227–257
McGeer V (2008b) The makings of a moral sensibility: replies to commentaries. In: Sinnott-Armstrong W (ed) Moral psychology, volume 3: The Neuroscience of Morality: emotion, brain disorders, and development. MIT Press, Cambridge, pp 281–296
Mei-Tal M (2004) The criminal responsibility of psychopathic offenders. Israel Law Rev 36:103–121
Prinz J (2011) Against empathy. South J Philos 49:214–233
Smith M (1994) The moral problem. Basil Blackwell, Oxford
Williams B (1976) Persons, Character and Morality. Reprinted in B. Williams, Moral Luck. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 1–19
Acknowledgments
I am very grateful to Victoria McGeer and Edward Elliott for insightful comments on a previous draft of this essay.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Isserow, J. Empathy and morality. Biol Philos 30, 597–608 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-015-9489-8
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-015-9489-8