2007-12-28 07:04:13 · 16 answers · asked by American Spirit 7 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Yes.
It encourages cooperation within a group, which improves the entire groups odds of survival.
Consider a group of monkeys with empathy, and a group without any. The second batch will likely fight constanty over minor things and hurt the individuals weaker than they are just for fun. Very quickly, the group will break up and each monkey will have to fend for themselves. Now, the empath monkeys are much less likely to fight over trivia, and they will certainly not inflict pain for no good reason (that is almost the definition of empathy). So the group stays together more and is better prepared to deal with a problems that come up.
2007-12-28 07:06:49 · answer #1 · answered by juicy_wishun 6 · 5⤊ 0⤋
Yes. It's an evolutionary necessity for any social hunting animal, such as humans or canids such as dogs and wolves.
If you cannot empathise with the other members of your pack, you end up destroying each other if you have the means to.
Humans these days comprise a very, very large pack, with very, very lethal means of destroying each other.
Our genes provide most of us with the capacity for developing empathy, but our genes cannot ensure that this actually happens.
2007-12-28 15:13:34 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
I think so. In order for us to survive as social creatures, we developed many of what we now consider social skills. Empathy is among those. Other animals display empathy in certain situations as well.
That's not to say that empathy is purely biological. It's absolutely influenced by environment and social conditioning, and I think that people can be taught empathy as well.
2007-12-28 15:13:08 · answer #3 · answered by N 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Yes. Understand others' feelings (especially those of one's children) confers a definite evolutionary advantage.
2007-12-28 15:08:11 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 4⤊ 0⤋
Yes.
In "The God Delusion", Richard Dawkins devotes an entire chapter to the possible evolutionary roots of morality.
I'd recommend you read it sooner rather than later.
2007-12-28 15:07:18 · answer #5 · answered by The Reverend Soleil 5 · 4⤊ 0⤋
Anything that helps maintain an objective relation with reality is evolutionary.
2007-12-28 15:09:55 · answer #6 · answered by JORGE N 7 · 3⤊ 0⤋
Yah. A sign of empathy is other members of a species imitating their yawns. Even monkeys do it.
2007-12-28 15:35:34 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
A biologist whose name escapes me wrote a book recently called "The Altruism Gene". That might explain it.
2007-12-28 15:17:03 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes. In fact, humans have certain brain cells called "mirror neurons," which react to cause you to feel what another person is feeling.
2007-12-28 15:13:00 · answer #9 · answered by Q 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Yeah. It helps to build communities and societies. That contributes to our survival and growth and dominance over other species.
2007-12-28 15:08:52 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 0⤋