Are Hippopotamus Ethics Enough?
Daniel Gauss
When we see another being suffer, something happens in us. It is not abstract, not cognitive nor philosophical, it is a visceral feeling which occurs. We feel a discomfort that is not their pain but is definitely related to it. This phenomenon, feeling pain for pain, may be the deepest emotional root of ethics. Before rules, before reason, before social contracts or priests and gods, there has been this simple capacity: the inability to remain emotionally unmoved by another’s suffering once it i
Tags