Lecturer: Albert Newen
Fields: Philosophy of Mind
Content
Despite some recent criticism, empathy is still seem as the glue that binds us and holds societies together. What exactly is empathy (the definitional question)? Is it uniquely human or which nonhuman animals possess empathy (the distribution question)? And which type or quality of empathy is realized in different species (the quality question)? We suggest a new methodological approach to answer all three questions, namely a species-sensitive, multifactorial profile theory of empathy: This includes the claim that we cannot offer a strict definition with necessary and sufficient conditions of empathy which captures the rich variety of empathic phenomena. Thus, we develop a multifactorial characterization of five typical and testable dimensions which together and in sufficient clustering indicate a type of empathy; furthermore, each of the five general dimensions is characterized in detail by several features which allow us to test the degree of realization for each feature. The degree of implementation of one dimension results from the degrees of realization of the relevant features. This framework is unfolded by starting with a minimal condition which we aim to constrain with testable cognitive dimensions such that depending on the degree to which these dimensions are realized, we can ascribe a species-specific profile of empathy. In an additional step this framework is used to discuss the question whether and how AI system can be empathic. This is investigated by looking at the present performance of Large Language Models (LLMs). The profile account needs additional aspects to work out the commonalities and differences of LLMs compared to humans and animals.
Literature
- Ramya Srinivasan, Beatriz San Miguel González (2022), The role of empathy for artificial intelligence accountability, Journal of Responsible Technology, 9, 100021,
- ISSN 2666-6596, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrt.2021.100021.
- to appear:
- Newen et al. (accepted): Animal Empathy Reconsidered: A Multidimensional Profile Account. (send me an email: albert.newen@rub.de)
- Preston, S. D., & Waal, F. B. M. (2002). Empathy: Its ultimate and proximate bases. Behavioural and Brain Sciences 25(1), 1–20.
Lecturer
Albert Newen is full professor of philosophy at the Ruhr-University Bochum (RUB), Germany. His central research areas are philosophy of mind and cognition. Furthermore, he is the director of the interdisciplinary Center for Mind and Cognition at RUB since 2011. He was president of the German Society for Cognitive Science (2018-2020) and since 2017, he is the speaker of an interdisciplinary Research Training Group (DFG-Graduiertenkolleg) on “Situated Cognition”.
Affiliation: Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Institut für Philosophie II
Homepage: https://www.pe.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/philosophie/ii/newen/index.html.de