The Equivocal Relationship between Morality and Empathy

• Published in: The Moral Brain p. 279
• Main Authors: Jean Decety, Jason M. Cowell
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: The MIT Press 06-03-2015
• Subjects: Amygdala; Anatomy; Animals; Axiology; Basal ganglia; Behavioral neuroscience; Behavioral sciences; Biological sciences; Biology; Brain; Central nervous system; Cerebral cortex; Cerebral lobes; Cerebrum; Cognitive neuroscience; Cognitive Psychology; Cognitive Sciences; Concept of mind; Emotion; Emotional states; Empathy; Ethics; Frontal lobe; Humans; Judgment; Mammals; Metaphysics; Moral judgment; Morality; Nervous system; Neuroscience; Normative ethics; Philosophy; Philosophy of mind; Prefrontal cortex; Primates; Psychology; Social psychology; We they distinction; Zoology
• ISBN: 0262028719; 9780262028714
• DOI: 10.7551/mitpress/9988.003.0024

There is broad consensus that empathy is a fundamental component of our socioemotional and interpersonal lives. Empathy plays a vital role in social interaction from bonding between mother and child to appreciating conspecific subjective psychological states. Empathy-related processes are thought to motivate prosocial behavior, inhibit aggression, and provide the foundation for care-based morality. The lack of empathy is a hallmark characteristic of psychopathy and, in these individuals, is associated with callous disregard for the well-being of others coupled with an inability to experience remorse and guilt. Moreover, research with both healthy people and patients with neurological damage indicates that some