Empathy is but a tool

 

It facilitates collective action

 

It also sabotages collective action

 

Empathy is a tool, it’s a bias in favour of cooperating with others

(Empathy’s role was to counterweight the innate selfishness — in favour of a potentially more robust tribal design)

If cooperation is impossible — it is harmful

(attempting cooperation when that is impossible, out of the bias of empathy — results in you only getting exploited)

 

If cooperation is possible — you perhaps don’t need empathy to realise that it’s often the best strategy

 

The well-being of others is obviously important

Provided it’s not well-being of some — at the expense of some

 

Well-being of animals shouldn’t come at the expense of people

…if we are the people. I’m confident animals would disagree

 

Well-being of “us” shouldn’t come at the expense of “them”

I’m confident “they” would disagree

 

Empathy is a good reflex a lot of the time

It well squares with modern models of society, actually

And modern models of society quite obviously outperform previous models of society

Empathy is a good reflex, but it’s not yet good in and of itself

 

Nothing is good in and of itself — since we don’t fucking know what is always good

Ethics are debatable

That does not mean we can’t ever tell right from wrong

It means we can’t always tell right from wrong

 

You should know your ethics

You should be empathetic

AND you should know your ignorance

 

If you lack any of the 3 — you’re not as virtuous as you think you are

Often you’re not virtuous at all

 

Be good when it’s clear what is right

STFU about what you’re not so competent about

Because if you’re wrong while trying to be good — you’re not only not good — you’re often harmful. (As the proverb says…)

 

If you lack empathy — know your ethics, and be very very observant and careful

If you lack wisdom — follow your heart, be empathetic, and be very very careful and humble. Empathy is not nearly enough