Every once in a while, I feel my chest sinking in with ribs crushing my heart because I felt the pain of someone’s story. Every once in a while, I feel my heart soar past my ribs, past my chest into the sky due to the feeling of joy from someone’s story. I am a very empathetic human being, for I can imagine another’s life and their emotions to the point of physical relation. I would not change this ever. This is my strength in life. There are so many ways to know and learn more about each other and the world; however, imagination is my favorite since it allows me to be empathetic– to fathom the experience of a fellow human being. In high school, I discovered the various ways of knowing (memory, emotions, intuition, reason, language, sense perception, faith, imagination), and their necessity in working together as an intricate web. This web aids humans to reach our full potential. Empathy without this web is not strong enough to help discover positive morals (benefiting all of humanity), but empathy is the major way of knowing needed to design the “perfect” morals for humans.
The defining traits of humans outlying us from other animals is our capacity to feel emotions and think abstractly (imagination). This fact alone demonstrates the essentialness empathy (a combination of emotion and imagination) is for our lives. Nonetheless, empathy cannot be solely used while making moral decisions. When deciding anything, a human uses all the different ways of knowing; and depending on the subject at hand, one way of knowing can outweigh another one when deciding. In addition, morals are how we treat other living creatures whether it be “good” (the individual benefits) or “bad” (the individual does not benefit). Therefore, morals depend heavily on our connections to other living creatures, especially other human beings. Empathy provides a deep, emotional connection between humans giving one human the experience of another. The experience portrayed through empathy allows one to determine the “good” moral decision since they can see the experience from a more personal point of view.
I will now address each fact presented within context furthering the argument of empathy being essential to our morals and how it cannot function alone. Afterwards, I will address counterarguments and the flaws presented within them.
We use various ways of knowing to discover the “best” choice for ourselves or others. For example, in the morning you go to Starbucks, but what type of coffee will be chosen? Memory is used to eliminate choices that were proven to disgust the taste buds and prop up the choices that have delighted the taste buds previously, so here memory is connected to past sense perception (taste). As well, if there are new choices, intuition and memory are used together in determining if the new flavors will taste delicious or horrendous. Then, reasoning comes into play when prices are looked over, but this also depends on one’s memory of their bank account and financial choices. It can be seen here how intricately our ways of knowing are interconnected to come to a decision. This same logic is used when generating moral choices and laws for ourselves. Yet, when it comes to morals empathy is the key to finding the “right” moral choice similar to how memory is fundamental for acquiring the “best” coffee. In order to determine the best course of moral action, we should comprehend the situation using all of our abilities, and the easiest way to understand another person’s experience is empathy. Almost or completely feeling another person’s emotions during a situation grants the most accurate perception of the situation from the one experiencing it. This is the result since emotions are the easiest ways to understand another person, for emotions are unique to the human species connecting us.
Being connected through emotions gives us the ability to use our other ways of knowing to identify the best moral choice. The “best” choice being the one that can truly benefit the person from their own perspective. For instance, there is a town having problems with the police force bullying people of color. Someone directly experiencing the bullying will have the knowledge capable of figuring out the best solution to the problem, for direct involvement gives the most accurate representation of the problem. Therefore, empathy is a way of knowing allowing outsiders to fully comprehend the situation in order to determine the best solution for those directly affected. The outsider must be able to work with those directly affected and use their direct experience to understand indirectly the best moral route to take for benefiting the community. However, empathy can only act as the lead way of knowing not the only one for this situation. In parallel to picking the best coffee flavor, this situation has a lead way of knowing but instead of memory it is empathy (emotions and imagination). While deciding the best moral route, empathy should be guided with reasoning to find solutions that are financially applicable as well as memory to learn from past solutions that failed. Also, reasoning with empathy keeps internalized biased from surfacing and clouding judgment.
Now some may say compassion is a better way to guide our morals since it allows us to “car[e] for others without feeling their pain” (Paul Bloom). Sadly, compassion cannot give a full comprehension of a situation because its lack of feeling the emotions another human is feeling, thus distancing one’s self more from the situation. In addition, some argue that “those who chose empathy grow a broader, richer emotional life,” but this ignores the other ways of knowing needed to aid empathy in discovering the best decisions (Jamil Zaki). People argue that empathy alone cannot guide our morals since empathy can be biased, but what way of knowing is not biased? We are biased all the time and that’s why we used the various ways of knowing as a legal checks and balance to our thoughts to guide ourselves
In conclusion, I believe in the power empathy when it is used with the power of all the ways of knowing. Empathy has continued to guide me and my life choices; yet I act to the best of my abilities for the best of others. My childhood was full of pain and misfortune, and this trauma aids me in trying to remain unbiased and as objective as I can to others while feelings and understanding the emotions aroused during certain situations. Through this method of using empathy with reason and memory as tools, the people I helped in life truly thank me and love the ideas I give to them. Empathy is the leader for making moral decisions with its aids of reason, memory and other ways of knowing depending upon the situation.