[MD] Morality and Prudence

[david buchanan]

Matt said to Carl:
...In common parlance, for example, there's no difference at all between psychopath and sociopath (that I've found).  People pretty much use them as slang for the same thing: people who lack social empathy. .. And, on the other hand, it was clear you were talking about psychosis and antisocial personality disorder, which is the interesting thing to bring to bear on Pirsig's philosophy of insanity.  I'm not sure if Pirsig's insights have anything interesting to say about the distinction between sociopath and psychopath found on the weblink above.

dmb says:
Right. Sociopaths and psychopaths are both forms of anti-social personality disorder but the latter is more severe. I'd point out that normally the capacity to feel empathy begins at a very early age. Even infants can do it and researchers like Franz DeWall have found that primates and even rats have this capacity. Empathy is the basic foundation of morality and of the family structure even in the animal world. A person who's incapable of empathy is seriously damaged, is missing something very basic. Morality is about how we relate to each other. It's about "we", as opposed to me or it. Without empathy "we" means nothing.