[otakucode]

I would think this leads quickly to another question people might not want to answer... Does empathy increase the probability that the actions you decide to take will reduce or increase suffering?

I am a fan of an old German saying: "Good intentions are the opposite of good actions."

Every tragedy in human history that I know of was born from good intentions. Make society stronger, make the majority happier, make people safer, make them healthier, etc. The bottom line is that good intentions have no influence on the consequences of actions. To determine what the consequences will be and whether a course of action is likely to help or hurt, we might have to abandon empathy during the discussion. Of course, we shouldn't ignore empathy when considering whether we want the consequences or not.

[forensic]

>Does empathy increase the probability that the actions you decide to take will reduce or increase suffering?

Interesting question. You are speculating about human psychology based on your understanding of history. Though you haven't cited any literature to back up your statements, and you haven't claimed that you have knowledge of any psychological literature, I still find your opinion valuable.

I've read some of the literature related to this question. Here is one thing it says: psychopaths are people who almost never feel empathy. They decide to take many actions and many of those actions have disastrous and extremely harmful consequences for those around them. The harm they do is grossly out of proportion compared to the harm committed by non-psychopaths. They are extremely exploitative and cruel and disproportionately commit a large number of crimes.

Psychopaths are now roughly defined, by researchers, as people who don't experience empathy. If you want to see how people without empathy behave, look no further than the psychopath.

It's not pretty, and it contradicts your idea here.

A psychologist who specializes in psychopathy is Dr. Stout, who wrote several famous books about this topic.

The research shows that lack of empathy absolutely and unequivocally leads to hurting others. The actions of those who lack empathy hurt other people in far greater proportion. Operating empathetically involves feeling rather than logical thinking and it requires being in touch with your emotions.

"The road to hell" phrase refers to INTENTIONS, not EMPATHY. Intentions are cognitive, they are analytical. So good intentions may be meaningless (if this proverb has any truth) because good intentions are NOT empathy. What is more important are the FEELINGS of empathy.

[tzs]

> Every tragedy in human history that I know of was born from good intentions.

Isn't that pretty much a meaningless statement, because people almost always have good intentions in mind (at least from their own viewpoint) when they do almost any action?

[lukasb]

We use emotions to help us pick the ends to which logical effort should be directed. Try as you might, you will not be able to logically select the axioms by which you reason.

[CamperBob2]

I really like your first point, but I don't see how the second follows.

[illuminate]

"I am a fan of an old German saying: "Good intentions are the opposite of good actions.""

Except that good actions don't spring from malintent, so your folksy saying is of limited worth.

"Every tragedy in human history that I know of was born from good intentions"

Also every amazing pinnacle of human history and society. You also conveniently leave out the tragedies born from lack of good intention.

Have you never met a sociopath? Someone without empathy?

[oftenwrong]

My father used to say that the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.

[EliRivers]

"Good intentions are the opposite of good actions."

Maybe it loses something in the translation. If I had to guess, I would have said that bad intentions are the opposite of good intentions.

Anyway, given that an awful lot of good actions start with good intentions, this doesn't seem a very useful saying at all.

[Evbn]

Selection bias. Everything is done with good intentions, good things and bad things. Very few people set out to do the wrong thing from their perspective, and plenty of evil is done via cold calculus (think most of US foreign policy) that is defined by lack of empathy.