Empathy

What are the causes and effects of empathy?

Is it natural or artificial?

1 technical definition of empathy is; “the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.” According to this definition, it’s required to understand, to feel empathy, so it seems plausible that most animals, other than humans, wouldn’t fit this definition, as it seems likely they mostly have little ability to understand anything in general. If empathy is more common in humans, then what caused humans to develop empathy in the 1st place?

Considering empathy has the effect of making someone care for another and aid them, it seems likely this developed as an instinctual trigger for pack animals to aid and care for others in the pack. Similarly to the concept of an individual receiving positive reinforcement from another pack member gaining a benefit, as I described in my last post; Pass the Positive, empathy seems it would also include negative reinforcement, caused by knowledge of another pack member being harmed. This seems plausible since other animals which seem to show signs of empathy, are pack animals. 

The concept of reinforcement for empathy, could be relatable to hunger. Hunger is negative reinforcement, as a form of pain, which drives the individual to change the circumstances, in order to avoid that negative reinforcement. Once the hunger is satisfied, the individual experiences positive reinforcement in the form of relief, just as when another pack member is aided.

If this concept of reinforcement is the natural origin of empathy, then why does the function of modern day empathy, seem to require understanding? Perhaps, like many emotions, the initial trigger is instinctual, and it functions on basic simple scenarios, but can cause a range of varying complicated concepts to be affected. If the original trigger of wanting to aid others, occurs for a species which has the additional capability of comprehension and understanding (such as humans), then it seems likely this trigger would have a tendency to provoke similar concepts to come to mind. 

Since the trigger involves focusing on another individual who needs aid, the tendency of concepts which come to mind, seems logical to be; worrying about and understanding why the other individual could use aid. For this depth of the concept of empathy to be a regular result of the initial basic instinctual trigger, it seems the species would require awareness of mind. For an individual to make the relation that another individual is experiencing pain of some form, they 1st require the ability to comprehend that both themselves and the other, have similar minds, and experience similar pain. 

If empathy is indeed the concept of; a basic instinctual trigger to aid another, causing understanding of that other’s state of mind, then could empathy occur artificially, without that initial natural trigger? For eg, we may develop AI in a certain way, or another species of animal or alien could perhaps develop the capability of understanding concepts such as the mind, without having the same instinct to aid others. If an individual was to have awareness of mind, but not have the instinctual drive to aid others, it seems plausible they could still have the ability to understand and share the feelings of another individual. As long as they have awareness of mind, they should be able to understand what the other is experiencing, and as long as they have experienced the same feelings, then they should be able to share the feelings. The instinct to aid others, seems it may make it a lot more probable for empathy to occur, but not necessarily a requirement. 

How adaptable would understanding and relation of experience need to be, in order to cause empathy? Would the exact same form of feelings need to be experienced by the empathizer? Or could vaguely categorized forms of feelings be enough for comprehension, to allow understanding of another's feelings? Perhaps there are different types of degrees of accuracy for empathy, depending on the individuals accuracy of estimate of similar experience. But as for a rough accuracy, perhaps experience of any form of positive or negative reinforcement (or “feelings”), could be enough for empathy, when sufficient comprehension and understanding is involved.

With awareness of mind and similar experiences, empathy might be possible artificially, but it seems likely the instinct to aid others, naturally caused empathy to be more common for humans. Even with minimal relatable experience, comprehension and understanding might open potential for empathy.