If a Lack of Empathy Is a Contributing Trait to Being an Android, Then Are Those Who Feel No

In the 1968 novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick defines essential human characteristics as having empathy, emotions and spirituality. When a being lacks any, or all, of these characteristics it is considered non-human, or an Android. Do these characteristics wholly define being a human? In judgment of these qualities can we distinguish between humans and non-humans?. Though empathy is an important quality in being a human, is does not qualify as the cornerstone to all human life. That in fact, many human beings lack this quality to some degree or another. Empathy is a trait that changes depending on circumstances. For this to be a defining characteristic of a human being it cannot change or the definition of a human being would have to change with it. In essence, if this were the case, what you would have is a being that is considered human under certain circumstances and non-human under others. Philip K. Dick would have to concur with this fallacy in order to avoid hypocrisy and thus this proves that that a being can be human even if it lacks certain human characteristics, such as empathy.

Empathy is an ability to recognize and interpret other people’s emotions while not necessarily sharing them, which is contrary to sympathy, which is defined as being shared by both individuals. An example of such is witnessing a friend who is angered with someone else. As a person expressing empathy you recognize and attempt to understand your friend’s frustrations even though you aren’t yourself mad at that person. Sympathy is recognizing a friend’s frustration and yourself being frustrated as well.
Empathy is currently one of the most discussed topics in psychology today. At the center of nourishing the psychological development of infants to young adolescents is the parental factor. Studies have shown that deficiencies in parental empathy are likely to be key factors in creating greater probability for personality disorders, depression and other... [continues]

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