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THE EMPATHY MACHINE: A THOUGHT EXPERIMENT

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2020

Douglas Groothuis
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Abstract

Empathy is an underexplored dimension of the moral life. What if we could enter a machine that let us feel another person's subjective life? What kind of effect would that have on our moral awareness? Since this cannot (yet) be done, I suggest several ways to increase empathy and deepen our moral sensitivities.

Type
Research Article
Information
Think , Volume 19 , Issue 55 , Summer 2020 , pp. 85 - 94
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy 2020

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References

Notes

1 Nozick, Robert, ‘The Experience Machine’, in Pojman, Louis (ed.) Ethical Theory: Classical and Contemporary Readings, 5th edn (Belmont: Wadsworth, 2007), 146–7Google Scholar.

2 Russell, Bertrand, The Problems of Philosophy (New York: Oxford University Press, 1910)Google Scholar, ch. 5.

3 ‘Dissociative Identity Disorder,’ WebMD, <http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/dissociative-identity-disorder-multiple-personality-disorder>.

4 Film: Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. Written by Harve Bennett, Directed by Leonard Nimoy. TV Episode: Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, ‘Sarek’. Written by Peter S. Beagle, Directed by Les Landau. Thanks to Michael Stark for these references.

5 Frankena, William, Ethics, 2nd edn (New York: Prentice-Hall, 1973)Google Scholar, 69.

6 Ibid.

7 Roberts, Robert C. and Wood, W. Jay, Intellectual Virtues: An Essay in Regulative Epistemology (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 122. Thanks to Michael Stark for this reference.

8 Thanks to Sarah C. Geis, Michael Stark, and David Werther for their comments on this article.