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What's the Difference Between Empathy, Sympathy, and Compassion?

chopra.com

71–72 of 72 posts

Re: What's the Difference Between Empathy, Sympathy, and Compassion?

#71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>This is exactly the reason he uses big words and conflates scientific terms with his own ideas -- to sow confusion and hopefully be passed off on the benefit of the doubt. It's all just "chicken feed" and you've fallen hook line and sinker for it. Adding some mind reading in (Chopra's, and mine) for some bonus points now? Will you be demonstrating more of your supernatural abilities? > There is zero academic or scie…

>I do not believe that you have actually reviewed all of Chopra's work. >I don't really know much about him, That you can write those two completely contradictory statements in the same post shows that you're just as full of it as Deepak. And that's really saying something, although you admittedly don't know enough about Deepak yourself to fully grasp what that means. But I do know something about him.

> That you can write those two completely contradictory statements in the same post shows that you're just as full of it as Deepak.

a) Can you explain how it is a fact that these two statements are completely contradictory?

b) For the sake of argument, if we assume that you are correct, can you explain how it follows that I am just as full of it as Deepak?

> And that's really saying something, although you admittedly don't know enough about Deepak yourself to fully grasp what that means.

Do you believe yourself to be fully informed on Deepak? It seems quite unlikely, so how would you be able to fully grasp what your claim means?

One interesting trick I recommend in these sorts of situations: consider whether you have ever gotten an answer wrong on a test in the past.

Re: What's the Difference Between Empathy, Sympathy, and Compassion?

#72
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, I don’t agree. Specifically on your point that this is a discussion about the meaning of words. It’s a discussion about the concepts and scenarios described by those words. We can call it anything we want, but those “concepts” we describe are not the same things. I do not care what word anyone wants to use to describe something — as long as it still ensures we’re talking about the same thing. I don’t run a phil…

The concept is arbitrary. It's a made up concept. It's an arbitrary collection of empathic and and sympathetic traits bundled up together to be a definition of another arbitrary word. Similar to "what is sentience?" People are arbitrarily ascribing different traits like intelligence, free will and aspects of "understanding" to the word "sentience". When people debate over whether a thing is "sentient" or not they are…

Well, I don't follow, at all. The fact that you seem to love getting lost in words (just as much as I do) is sort of demonstrated and at the same time diminished by your explanation on how (certain?) words/concepts are arbitrary — making it sound like it being 'arbitrary' has negative value. Why does that matter?

If I like a song, and say so, it's arbitrary. Why bother saying it? A mix of frequencies hitting my ear drums and matching some form of pattern in my brain is what I am technically excited about, but it's easier to say that... I just like the song.

I personally find it hard to follow the intention behind your argument, but I also feel it may be a waste of time for both of us to dive deeper, here.

I'd argue that the basic idea of a word is to describe "things", in a recallable form. If people want to discuss their interpretations of a word, I see no harm and wonder what the issue is.

You also seem to (unintentionally?) shift the original discussion over to a different context, from discussing the interpretations of certain words to "what is a worthy, or profound discussion to have", which you can freely do, but makes me wonder, again, what the intention is.

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