"circle of empathy"

The phrase is commonly associated with ethicist Peter Singer, but Jaron Lanier uses it too.

You have to draw a Circle of Empathy around yourself and others in order to be moral. If you include too much in the circle, you become incompetent, while if you include too little you become cruel. This is the "Normal form" of the eternal liberal/conservative dichotomy.

Lanier's Third Law: You can't rely completely on the level of rationality humans are able to achieve to decide what to put inside the circle...

Best guess for Circle of Empathy: Danger of increasing human stupidity is probably greater than potential reality of machine sentience. Therefore choose not to place machines in Circle of Empathy. edge.org

Empathy is essential, but it's essential to extend it in the right directions.

goodness

"Humanists have always understood that striving to make the world a better place is one of humanity's most important responsibilities. Religion does not have a monopoly on morality -- millions of people are good without believing in God." Seems like something that would go without saying, but saying it on subways and busses will stir up lots of animosity. Will the humanists' new ad campaign also provoke intelligent discussion, in class at least? I'll get back to you on that.

But on a related front: how good are we, really? Students repeatedly report ("this is just my opinion, but...") that on their view humans will never learn to cooperate with those of different background and ethnicity, or to tolerate those with different religious or political views.

As I said in class: let's keep the books open on that, new research seems to indicate that we're natively more sympathetic towards others than convention supposes. We have it in us, in germ, to be better people.

“We’re preprogrammed to reach out,” primatologist Franz de Waal writes. “Empathy is an automated response over which we have limited control. In fact, I’d argue that biology constitutes our greatest hope. One can only shudder at the thought that the humaneness of our societies would depend on the whims of politics, culture or religion.”

Yup. Politics, in particular, has lately been a let-down. (I write while still absorbing the disappointment of what looks like a ramping-up, and not the beginning of the end, of what has now become Obama's war in Afghanistan.) If we're going to keep hope alive we may have to trust ourselves more than my students' reports indicate we should. Can we take it on faith, folks-- and on accumulating evidence!-- that we can do better?

Yes, we can.