{"id":5540,"date":"2014-08-04T19:41:39","date_gmt":"2014-08-05T00:41:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unfoldingseries.com\/?p=5540"},"modified":"2014-08-04T20:24:38","modified_gmt":"2014-08-05T01:24:38","slug":"empathy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unfoldingseries.com\/uf9\/empathy\/","title":{"rendered":"Empathy"},"content":{"rendered":"
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empathy<\/strong><\/a> n.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> the imaginative projection of a subjective state into an object so that the object appears to be infused with it<\/span><\/p>\n

2.<\/strong> the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner; also : the capacity for this<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Several days ago, I came across an online article discussing experiments into empathy. One done in Italy found what are now called \u201cmirror neurons\u201d which exist in both\u00a0 monkeys and humans. The research using monkeys found these neurons fire both when a monkey took a banana and when a monkey observed a human taking a banana.<\/p>\n

Imaging studies showed that humans also fire neurons in those parts of the brain when either perceiving or taking action. The temporal lobe is an area where activity in human brains was unexpectedly observed. “The discovery suggests that memory is embedded in our mirror system, says Marco Iacoboni (University of California, Los Angeles)”<\/p>\n

The one criticism I have of the following RSA presentation by Jeremy Rifkin is his assertion that “…there is no empathy in heaven.” His reasoning is there is no mortality or suffering and that “…empathy is grounded in the acknowledgement of death and the celebration of life.”<\/p>\n