Reflections and Intuitions about Empathy in Animals. A Phenomenological Perspective
Keywords:
Empathy, phenomenology, intuition, embodiment.Abstract
The aim of the study presented here is to analyze empathy in animals and how it is attributed to them by humans. To achieve such a purpose, two interrelated considerations are made. First, I discuss the philosophical assumptions that have prevented us from understanding animals as mentally complex beings. Second, I take up some elements of phenomenological philosophy, in particular the approach of a co-constituting relationship between body and mind, as well as the concept of intuition and its importance for the attribution of empathy in order to understand how empathy arises and manifests. I conclude that empathy is not just in the mind, that means a particular way of being with the body, in the world and with others; in this sense, empathy might be considered a socially embedded, embodied phenomenon.
References
Adriaense, J., Koski, S., Huber, L. & Lamm, C. (2020). “Challenges in the comparative study of empathy and related phenomena in animals”. Neuroscience & Biobehav- ioral Reviews, 112, 62-82. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2020.01.021.
Allen, C. (2014). “Models, mechanisms, and animal minds”. The Southern Journal of Phi- losophy, 52.
Animal Wire. (2014). Bear Saves Crow from Drowning. https://www.youtube.com/watch?- v=TSPgenqMlvQ.
Auné, S. E., Abad, F. J. P., & Attorresi, H. F. (2015). “Antagonismos entre concepciones de empatía y su relación con la conducta prosocial”. Revista de Psicología (Trujillo), 17(2), 137–149. https://doi.org/10.18050/revpsi.v17n2a7.2015.
Barnett, S. A. (1963). A study in behaviour. The Camelot Press.
Beran, M. J. (2017). “To Err Is (Not Only) Human: Fallibility as a Window Into Primate Cognition”. Comparative Cognition & Behavior Reviews, 12, 57-82. https://doi. org/10.3819/ccbr.2017.120006.
Baron-Cohen, S. (2011). The science of evil: On empathy and the origins of cruelty. Basic Books.
Barsalou, L. W. (2005). “Continuity of the conceptual system across species”. Trends Cogn.
Sci. 9, 309–311. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2005.05.003.
Bekoff, M. (2000). “Animal Emotions: Exploring Passionate Natures”. BioScience, 50(10), 861–870. https://doi.org/10.1641/0006-3568(2000)050[0861:AEEPN]2.0.CO;2.
Bekoff, M. (2008). The emotional lives of animals: A leading scientist explores animal joy, sor- row, and empathy - and why they matter (1. paperback printing). New World Library.
Bekoff, M., & Pierce, J. (2009). Wild justice: The moral lives of animals. The University of Chicago Press.
Bekoff, M., Pierce, J. & Martín, U. A. (2018). Una agenda para la cuestión animal. Libertad, compasión y coexistencia en la Era Humana (Pensamiento crítico no 75) (1.a ed.). Ediciones Akal, S.A.
Bitbol, M. Petitmengin, C. (2013). On the possibility and reality of introspection. Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe - HAL - Université Paris Descartes.
Budaev, S., Jørgensen, C., Mangel, M., Eliassen, S. & Giske, J. (2019). “Decision-Making From the Animal Perspective: Bridging Ecology and Subjective Cognition”. Fron- tiers in Ecology and Evolution, 7. https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2019.00164.
Chisholm, J. D., Chapman, C. S., Amm, M., Bischof, W. F., Smilek, D. & Kingstone, A. (2014). “A Cognitive Ethology Study of First- and Third-Person Perspectives”. PLoS ONE, 9(3), e92696. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0092696.
Churchill, S. (2008). “Nature and animality”. En R. Diprose & J. Reynolds (Eds.), Merleau-Ponty Key Concepts (2014a ed., pp. 174–183). Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. Ciocan, C. (2019). “Embodiment and Animality”. Journal of the British Society for Phe-
nomenology, 50(2), 87–103. https://doi.org/10.1080/00071773.2018.1517505
Darwin, C. (2022). The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals: A classic evolu- tionary theory text (Illustrated and Annotated). Independently published.
Dawkins, R. (1976). El gen egoísta. Las bases biológicas de nuestra conducta. (1989a ed.).
Salvat.
de Waal, F. (2009). The age of empathy: Nature’s lessons for a kinder society (First paper- back edition). Three Rivers Press.
de Waal, F. (2016). “Apes know what others believe”. Science, 354(6308), 39–40. https://doi. org/10.1126/science.aai8851.
de Waal, F. B. M., & Preston, S. D. (2017). “Mammalian empathy: behavioural manifesta- tions and neural basis”. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 18(8), 498–509. https://doi. org/10.1038/nrn.2017.72.
de Waal, F. (2022). Ultimo abrazo, el. (metatemas). Planeta.
Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F. (1987). A thousand plateaus: Capitalism and schizophrenia.
University of Minnesota Press.
Depraz, N. (2012). “Empathy and second-person methodology”. Continental Philosophy Review, 45(3), 447-459. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11007-012-9223-z.
Depraz, N., Varela, F. J., & Vermersch, P. (Eds.). (2003). On becoming aware: A pragmatics of experiencing. J. Benjamins.
Despret, V. (2013). “Responding Bodies and Partial Affinities in Human–Animal Worlds”.
Theory, Culture & Society, 30(7–8), 51–76. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263276413496852.
Escudero, J. A. (2011). “Husserl y la Fenomenología”. En J. A. Escudero (Trad.), La idea de la fenomenología (1a ed.). Liberdúplex.
Gallagher, Department of Philosophy Shaun. (2005). How the Body Shapes the Mind (Il- lustrated). Clarendon Press.
Garcés, L. F. (2015). “La virtud aristotélica como camino de excelencia humana y las acciones para alcanzarla”. Discusiones Filosóficas, 16(27), 127-146. https://doi. org/10.17151/difil.2015.16.27.8.
Gallistel, C. R. & Balsam, P. D. (2014). “Time to rethink the neural mechanisms of learn- ing and memory”. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, 108, 136-144. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.nlm.2013.11.019.
Gallistel, C. R. & King, A. P. (2009). Memory and the Computational Brain: Why Cogni- tive Science Will Transform Neuroscience: 3 (1.a ed.). Wiley-Blackwell.
Goodall, J. (2009). In the shadow of man. Mariner Books.
Goodall, J. & Abrams, D. (2021). The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times. Celadon Books.
Griffin, D. R. (1994). Animal minds (Paperback ed). Univ. of Chicago Press.
Husserl, E. (2011). La idea de la fenomenología (J. A. Escudero, Trad.; 1a ed.). Liberdúplex. Lawlor, L. (2008). “Following the Rats: Becoming-Animal in Deleuze and Guattari”. The
Political Animal, 37(3), 169–187.
Myowa, M. & Butler, D. L. (2017). “The Evolution of Primate Attachment”. The Cultural Nature of Attachment. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/9780262036900.003.0003.
Park, S. & Whang, M. (2022). “Empathy in Human–Robot Interaction: Designing for So- cial Robots”. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(3), 1889. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19031889.
Penn, D. C., Holyoak, K. J. & Povinelli, D. J. (2008). “Darwin’s mistake: Explaining the dis- continuity between human and nonhuman minds”. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 31(2), 109-130. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0140525x08003543.
Petitmengin, C. (1999). “The Intuitive Experience”. Journal of Consciousness, 6(2–3), 43–77. Petitmengin, C. (2006). “Describing one’s subjective experience in the second person: An interview method for the science of consciousness”. Phenomenology and the Cogni-
tive Sciences, 5(3-4), 229-269. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11097-006-9022-2.
Petitmengin, C. (2017). “Enaction as a lived experience: towards a radical neurophenom- enology”. Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe - HAL - Diderot. Petitmengin, C. & Bitbol, M. (2009). “Listening from within”. Journal of Consciousness
Studies, 16, 363-404.
Povinelli, D. J., & Giambrone, S. (1999). “Inferring Other Minds: Failure of the Argument by Analogy”. Philosophical Topics, 27(1), 167–201.
Ryan, D. (2015). Animal theory: A critical introduction. Edinburgh University Press. Romanes, G. J. & Darwin, C. (2022). Mental Evolution in Animals: With a Posthumous
Essay On Instinct by Charles Darwin. Legare Street Press.
Shores, C. (2017). “What Is It Like to Become a Rat? Animal Phenomenology through Uexkül and Deleuze & Guattari”. Studia Phaenomenologica, XVII, 201–221.
Schutz, A., Walsh, G. & Lehnert, F. (1967). Phenomenology of the Social World (1.).
Northwestern University Press.
Stein, E. (2004). El problema de la empatía (J. L. Caballero Bono, Trad.). Trotta. Thompson, E. (2007). Mind in life: Biology, phenomenology, and the sciences of mind.
Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
Timberlake, W. (2002). “Niche-related learning in laboratory paradigms: The case of maze behavior in Norway rats”. Behavioural Brain Research, 134(1–2), 355–374. https:// doi.org/10.1016/S0166-4328(02)00048-7.
Tinbergen, N. (1964). Social Behaviour in Animals (Psychology Revivals) (0 ed.). Psychology Press. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315849997.
Tomasello, M. (1999). The cultural origins of human cognition. Harvard University Press. Tomasello, M. & Carpenter, M. (2007). “Shared intentionality”. Developmental Science,
(1), 121-125. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7687.2007.00573.x.
Tomasello, M. (2014). “The ultra‐social animal”. European Journal of Social Psychology, 44(3), 187-194. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2015.
Tomasello, M. (2016). A Natural History of Human Morality. Amsterdam University Press. Trivers, R. L. (1971). “The Evolution of Reciprocal Altruism”. The Quarterly Review of
Biology, 46(1), 35–57. https://doi.org/10.1086/406755.
Urquiza-Haas, E. G. & Kotrschal, K. (2015). “The mind behind anthropomorphic think- ing: attribution of mental states to other species”. Animal Behaviour, 109, 167-176. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2015.08.011.
Varela, F. J., Thompson, E., & Rosch, E. (2011). De cuerpo presente: Las ciencias cognitivas y la experiencia humana. Gedisa.
Wang, Q., Timberlake, M. A., Prall, K. & Dwivedi, Y. (2017). “The recent progress in ani- mal models of depression”. Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry, 77, 99-109. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pnpbp.2017.04.008.
Yamamoto, S. (2017). “Primate empathy: three factors and their combinations for em- pathyrelated phenomena”. Wiley Interdiscip. Rev. Cogn. Sci. 8 (3). 1-11. https://doi. org/10.1002/wcs.1431.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2023 Revista Latinoamericana de Estudios Críticos Animales
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
La Revista Latinoamericana de Estudios Críticos Animales con ISSN 2346-920X se adhiere a las diferentes iniciativas que promueven el acceso libre al conocimiento, por lo que todos los contenidos de la misma son de acceso libre y gratuito y publicados bajo la licencia Creative Commons, que permite su difusión pero impide la alteración de la obra e incluye siempre mención al autor/a y fuente.
Es decir, una licencia de tipo Atribución-NoComercial-SinObraDerivada.
Por ello, los correos electrónicos de los autores se encontrarán a disposición de los lectores, en caso de que deseen contactarlos personalmente.