The author Albert Nerenberg from the article, “I feel
for you. really,” and the text “Why can’t we all just get along? The Uncertain
Biological Basis of Morality” by Robert Wright both have different opinions on
whether people are cooperative or competitive. Albert Nerenberg thinks we are
cooperative because of our Mirror Neurons and Robert Wright would disagree because
of our morals we incorporate in our judgements to make us competitive. Albert
Nerenberg’s idea of us having Mirror Neurons will make us empathize with
others. Such as his example he used of when we watch movies and we feel the way
the actors are feeling and will end up crying when they do. By having these
mirror neurons we would be more cooperative with one another because we will be
able to feel what others are feeling towards the situation and be on their
sight of mind. Robert Wright believes that people are more towards being
competitive because of us infusing our morals with completing an action. He states
that we have a bias from one another due to natural selection. That conflicts
with the way towards you feel towards situations because you won’t see what you
have done wrong only what the opposing side has done negatively. Such as when
the U.S. “coup in Iran,
overthrowing a democratically elected government and installing a brutally
repressive regime that ruled for decades” and the Iranians continue to be
suspicious of Americans. The bias you have is not of the whole piece, it’s only
your sight of view in which you’re not looking at your blind spots.
If another author such as J.K. Rowling were to join the conversation, Albert the author of I feel for you, really would have quit a bit to say to him. The actor who played Harry Potter has a big head and eyes compared to his smaller size body being under six foot, so there i believe Albert would say this was a good job. In the book Harry Potter was always the one who we would feel empathetic for therefore he needed to acquire all the attributes that were needed to be an empathetic actor.
ReplyDeleteSince we started talking about empathy in class, and the different reactions one has during a certain situation. I wondered if the mirror cells were the only ones that decide what your reaction is going to be, empathic or not empathic.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading "I feel for you. really" I understood better that is not only our choice of having empathy for others; albert Nerenberg explains how some people never activated their mirror cells, and he gives different examples of the possible causes including fear, stress, isolation, war and childhood neglect, just to mention some of them.
It is an excellent explanation when Albert says that people who have a lot of mirror cells tend to be more empathic, whereas people who has less mirror cells or that never developed them, can hurt you without caring.
How I understand this, is that people with a lot of stress, bad experiences and traumas, can be less empathic because they are not having a happy life, therefore they would not care for someone else’s life.
Before I read this article I felt that people were competitive for that they are more likely to help themselves and at times, lacked empathy. But after reading this I learned empathy is something we all posses and are easily capable of doing. I never thought of movies proving how we are so easily capable of feeling fear, sadness and joy. We are able to feel these things for complete strangers on a screen, we are able to become connected and respond in the way they do. Ellen Hopkins is a well known author for writing verse novels. She writes of tragic, malicious, and sad events that are loosely based on real people. While reading her books you begin to become enveloped in the novel, you feel as if you know them or that you even are them. Your heart aches when they suffer or make the wrong decision. Even though these characters are mainly fictional you still feel as if they are real people.
ReplyDeleteIn the text “I feel for you. Really” by Albert Nerenberg, he talks about how people share emotions and stimulate the feelings inside of us. When people feel empathy for someone they are able to put themselves in the shoes of the person or situation they are witnessing. He states that it is hard to hurt someone you care for rather than a stranger on the street. The worker that bleed to death on the street was walked passed and no one helped him. If he was someone related to those people who walked by, they would have panicked and called for help. Bystanders did not show any empathy for these people who were getting hurt. Many people who feel bad for others is more sensitive than other people.
ReplyDeleteAlbert Nerenberg's article "I feel for you. Really." did open my eyes because at first i didn't really know that much about being empathetic or how easily we all would get caught up to many things about it. Especially about the characters in the movies i've always wondered why would we get so easily attached to them if its just a movie. For example in the ASPCA commercials when they zoom in on the animals who are being tortured, we feel very empathetic towards them because they're showing these tortured animals on TV. IT works every time just like when were watching a movie and get attached to the main character then he dies.
ReplyDeleteIf another author joined into the conversation Albert Nerenberg would say that empathy is lost because people are too worried about whats going on in their lives, they don't take the time to help someone in need. "Over worked, over-stressed people, frenzied people don't have a physiology to empathize." It's like a trait that's lost because of too much going on. People only take the time to feel empathy when it concerns them.
ReplyDeleteGillian Flynn who wrote the gothic romance story Gone Girl takes her audience on an emotional roller coaster telling the story about a marriage gone wrong. How she organized the novel between Nick's present and Amy's journal makes the audience put Nick under the radar of suspicion when his wife goes missing. Then in the second half of the novel you find out Amy is alive and has purposely made it look like her husband killed her so he could get the death penalty. Once this evidence is revealed as a reader you feel empathetic towards Nick because he is undeserving of that type of cruelty. If Albert Nerenburg read Gone Girl he would say that Gillian painted a perfect picture with her language to have her audience feel emotionally attached to Nick, so it wasn't just him going through this crazy goose chase but the reader was there too.
ReplyDeleteIf Joshua Greene were to join into the conversation he would say that humans are not empathetic because of natural selection and the bias all humans posses. He would mention the zero-sum game- if I win you lose, but if you win I lose. Albert Nerenberg would then jump in and understand where Greene is coming from, but ultimately would say that humans do contain empathy and empathize towards others. His movie example and how it is so easy for humans to feel exactly what total strangers are feeling is a concrete example that humans contain empathy and therefore would argue that humans are more cooperative towards each other than selfish.
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