Discussion Empathy and Logic

[a_french_guy]

The other day I was discussing with someone that a person who has never gone through any kind of depression, whether it be a brief feeling or a constant feeling, cannot understand what one can to feel. he insisted that through empathy and logic you could feel anything and that he understood how I felt. In my opinion, we cannot understand a human feeling thanks to logic since our reasonings or our feelings are not always logical. we are imperfect and we are all different so the vision he imagines of my situation may in fact be miles away from how I feel. we left in disagreement and I don't know what to think about it...
What do you think ?

 

[Bigsmoke777]

I think whoever said that to you is completely full of it. They could say they could only try to understand. That's all. It's like us to a blind or legless person. Its arrogant to act like we have so much empathy we're just such logical and caring people we just GET IT. No

 

[TransilvanianHunger]

I think that, if your empathy and logic are developed enough, you can get to a point where you empathise with someone else's struggle even if you can't feel the same things they do. Logic will tell you that there are human experiences outside your own that you can't experience yourself, and empathy will tell you that, even if you lack the experience, you can feel someone's suffering. It's not the same kind of "understanding", but I do think that people can feel someone's suffering, and care about it, even if they haven't gone through the same situations. What really matters is how that person acts, not necessarily what they've gone through. Suffering is universal, and you can understand someone's suffering because you've suffered at some point, even if you haven't suffered for the exact same reasons.

 

[a_french_guy]

let's say that in his mouth it was arrogant, as if to say "everyone can understand that so stop being unhappy"
but it's true that you have both reasons

 

[90starve]

The other day I was discussing with someone that a person who has never gone through any kind of depression, whether it be a brief feeling or a constant feeling, cannot understand what one can to feel. he insisted that through empathy and logic you could feel anything and that he understood how I felt. In my opinion, we cannot understand a human feeling thanks to logic since our reasonings or our feelings are not always logical. we are imperfect and we are all different so the vision he imagines of my situation may in fact be miles away from how I feel. we left in disagreement and I don't know what to think about it...
What do you think ?

i think that you can never truly know how it feels unless you've experienced depression, or disorders alike, for yourself.

although - i do think that some people, with logic and reason, are able to understand why people act or feel a certain way. for example, a doctor diagnoses you with a broken leg because it appears on an x-ray. but this same doctor will not know how it feels to have a broken leg.

i hope that makes sense :)

 

[Forever Sleep]

Yes- I agree. I definitely don't think you can understand emotions through logic. They are more about imagination and your own experiences to me- imagining yourself in that person's shoes/ their situation. Even then though- I expect we all experience emotions differently and to different intensities.

Also- exactly WHAT upsets us/ makes us joyful is different for all of us. Some people will let nearly everything wash over them- like water off a duck's back. Others get upset over seemingly trivial things- it depends on our histories I suppose- what we are already carrying with us, plus our own resilience.

I think some people simply don't have the patience for empathy. If they truly find someone pathetic for getting 'over' emotional- then they likely feel like that person needs to make more effort to be 'strong' (like them) rather than actually wondering what it would be like to be them and feel that- and more importantly- why? What are the chances that new situation is reminding them of past traumas? Again though- some people are just focused on self improvement- moving beyond all that might hold you back in life- like strong emotional reactions to triggers. Others are probably sociopaths/ psychopaths/ narcissists- so, they likely experience emotions differently or- not at much.