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LITR 4368 Literature of the Future 
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Sample answers
for Part 2:
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Zachariah Gandin
The Future of Empathy
The
topic of humanity and the most important ideas that make up that concept stand
out to me as being of paramount interest and importance. One concept stands out
to me as being the most important and most interesting: the idea of empathy,
which, according to Adam Smith in “Cognitive Empathy and
Emotional Empathy in Human Behavior and Evolution,” is “the vicarious sharing of
emotion” (1). In all of the narratives of the future that we have read in
class so far, the decline that is always eminent or the utopian society that is
in reality a dystopian society all seem to arrive at that decline or dystopia
from some decline or absence of our humanity and I believe the fundamental
component of that humanity is our empathy. Furthermore, in contrast, our ideal
evolution and harmonious future seems to only arrive from the mutual growth and
interest in each other’s growth and empathy. I intend to explore this concept of
empathy more fully and highlight its importance. Also, as someone who believes
in the power of stories and intends to dedicate his life to them in addition to
teaching, I believe that empathy, and through its presence and use, the positive
evolution of humanity and its success in the future can be achieved through
literature including narratives of the future.
All of the ideas above spark in me the
curiosity to further analyze this concept of empathy being both something
evolutionary and also somehow a basic instinct of humanity. My sense of this
instinct existed in me prior to this class but was sparked anew from reading
narratives such as Parable of the Sower
and “Stone Lives.” In Parable of the
Sower by Octavia Butler, the possible evolution of humanity is presented in
the form of a mutation that Lauren and others share called “hyperempathy.”
Normal empathy, as explained earlier by Adam Smith in “Cognitive Empathy and
Emotional Empathy in Human Behavior and Evolution,” is “the vicarious sharing of
emotion” which means that while technically shared, it is most of time just
being simulated in the sharer does not normally extend to debilitating physical
pain. This “hyperempathy” takes normal empathy to another level and forces those
with it to actually feel the pain of those that they can perceive around them
and many characters bring into question just what a future in which all humans
had this condition would look like. That future also intrigues me, I like to
imagine that such a future would force humanity to be ever more invested in
helping those around them. They would be forced to not just ignore the suffering
of others but to help it and of course humans would be severely limited in the
ways of hurting each other.
Empathy appears to be a basic and fundamental component
and instinct of humans. An example in one of the stories we read this semester,
Stone in “Stone Lives” by Paul Di Filippo, remembers back to a point when he was
still blind and more in tune with his instincts in which he could sense the
emotions of those around him, a sense that had been blinded since he had
regained his actual sight. This introduces the idea that empathy is something
inherently human that we have learned to ignore as we have developed other
senses and our society. It makes it seem to me from this example and that of
Lauren’s that empathy is a fundamental trait that actually defines a human into
being a human – as in you would be less human without empathy – and is both
inherent and instinctual and also the path of our evolution – that humans must
become more harmonious and interdependent and connected with one another in
order to survive as a species and that is also how we have survived as a
species.
Further exploration into the past and
future of humanity’s empathy and all that it entails appears to corroborate my
theory that empathy is a fundamental instinct of humanity that dates back to our
origins as a species. From the article “Putting the Altruism Back into Altruism:
The Evolution of Empathy” I learned that empathy is indeed “phylogenetically
ancient” and probably goes back to the very beginning of both mammals and birds.
Empathy in this article is described as directed altruism or more specifically
“perception of the emotional state of another automatically activates shared
representations causing a matching emotional state in the observer” (1). The
article goes on to say that this evolutionary theory indicates that altruistic
behavior evolved for the benefits returned to the one active in performing that
altruistic behavior. These details together would indicate that the origins of
empathy came about for the mutual benefit and resulting mutual survival of our
species.
Empathy has only evolved into a more complex state along
with humanity’s own evolution. “Putting the Altruism Back into Altruism: The
Evolution of Empathy” continues on to explain that as our species increased in
their cognitive capabilities, this altruistic “state-matching” evolved into the
more complex form we know today as empathy. This increased complexity and
parallel evolution with humanity as a whole is corroborated by Ross Buck and
Benson Ginsburg in “Communicative Genes and the Evolution of Empathy.” The
article states that the functions of empathy include the acquisition of “direct
knowledge by acquaintance of feelings and desires based on readouts of
specifiable functioning to inform the organism of bodily events important in
self-regulation” and go on to say that these functions have persisted since “the
beginning of life” (2). The information in both of these article seems to not
only correlate with the topic I set out to investigate but downright confirm its
validity, that humans evolved in an altruistic way, a mutual good and beneficial
way, because of the empathy or state-matching that developed in order for the
species that predated us to survive and eventually for us to have survived.
Having confirmed and validated the
importance of empathy and connected it to the very things that inherently make
us human and ensures our survival and evolution, the methods in which we develop
and nurture this empathy are ready to be explored, chiefly in literature and
reading. Annie Murphy Paul’s article “Reading Literature Makes Us Smarter and
Nicer” contests claims that literature does not improve us as people and instead
forwards research that literature actually makes us better people and enlarges
our world and perspectives which, in turn, allows us to grow as individuals. She
cites a professor of cognitive psychology who shows from studies that
“individuals who often read fiction appear to be better able to understand other
people, empathize with them and view the world from their perspective.” She
shows that “deep reading—slow immersive, rich in sensory detail and emotional
and moral complexity—is a distinctive experience, different in kind from the
mere decoding of words” that is an experience unlike any other and is an
endangered practice. As a future teacher of Literature, this is a validating
discovery. I already believe in the power that stories have to better those that
read them and this research confirms that.
It is clear from Paul’s article that this deep reading of
fiction and other narratives allows the reader to gain the insight and
perspectives of many others and enhance and enlarge their own mind and enable
the reader to empathize with a greater number of peoples and cultures. This can
be directly applied to what can be learned from some of the stories we have read
in Literature of the Future this semester, such as “Speech Sounds” by Octavia
Butler, “Chocco” by Ernest Callenbach, and “House of Bones” by Robert
Silverberg. From this research, my research into empathy itself, and the reading
we have done this semester such as the narratives listed above, it can be
inferred that reading literature can and will better any and all who participate
and through the reading of more and differing perspectives the reader obtains
the ability to empathize with an even larger percentage of the world.
As a future Literature or English teacher, stories like
“Speech Sounds,” “Chocco,” and “House of Bones” are inspiring and useful. By
having my students read these stories they can learn new kinds of empathy for
differing people along with the concept of empathy and humanity as a whole. For
example, in “Speech Sounds” my students can learn and explore a society in which
communication is crippled across the globe and gain a perspective of how
important and human communication is, a perspective my students may (and
hopefully) never experience in the real world. In “Chocco” my students will be
both entertained and informed about the possible outcomes of our current society
and world if we continue on in a selfish manner and how a more altruistic and
harmonious society might look, a society in which empathy is fully embraced.
“House of Bones” also furthers the idea that empathy is fundamental and
instinctual and was present even in the Stone Age and delivers the message that
for humans to survive we must be instinctually and unconditionally empathetic.
This empathy, obtained through the reading of literature which allows the reader
to connect with differing kinds of people that they may never have had the
opportunity to connect with in real life, will lead to a future in which
humanity both survives and thrives in greater harmony by educating and creating
future citizens that consciously and unconsciously strive to and have greater
ability to empathize with the world around them.
This topic of empathy and how it relates
to the overall success and survival of our species and of course how it relates
to literature is of paramount importance to me as a future Literature or English
teacher. Additionally, empathy is an integral and fundamental aspect of our
humanity that without it we could not be considered human. I believe and have so
been validated by my research into the topics thus far by the fact that empathy
is one of the most important things for the betterment of myself and so to those
around me, as well as the betterment of my future students and consequently all
of those that are connected to them. I see empathy as a great and altruistic
rippling effect that enhances and betters all that it touches and also something
that is not quite gained but instead discovered at deeper and deeper levels
within.
Works Cited
Critical Sources,
coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/xcritsource/jrnlsm/RdgBetterPaul2013.htm.
“Putting
the Altruism Back into Altruism: The Evolution of Empathy.” Annual
Reviews,
www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.psych.59.103006.093625.
Ross, and Benson Ginsburg. “Communicative Genes and the
Evolution of Empathy.” Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, John
Wiley & Sons, Ltd (10.1111), 17 Dec. 2006,
nyaspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1749-6632.1997.tb51944.x.
Smith, Adam. “Cognitive Empathy and Emotional Empathy in
Human Behavior and Evolution.” SpringerLink, Springer International
Publishing, 27 May 2017, link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF03395534.
