Empathy is a basic neural mechanism in humans. Empathy refers to the awareness and understanding of the sensory and emotional states of other people, In more primitive communities, this ability to interpret the mental states of ‘the other’ and put oneself in their place served to identify the emotional and mental state of ‘the other’ and enhance survival tactics.
Empathy is, then, essential for human relationships. So much so that, except for psychopaths or autistics, all humans are empathic beings. The part of the brain responsible for empathy is the cerebral cortex, specifically the anterior insular cortex. It is the size of the cerebral cortex that is the difference between human and animal brains. The human brain has a disproportionately large cerebral cortex, accounting for more than 80% of the total brain mass, while the cerebral cortex of other animal brains is comparatively small. Research gives us confidence that the advent of modern humans (i.e. Homo sapiens) was achieved through expansion and elaboration of the cerebral cortex.
Research from the University of Colorado at Boulder (USA) has mapped the areas of the human brain associated with empathy. The brain areas that appear preferentially related to empathic distress are also activated while we experience or observe actions, sensations and facial expressions (i.e. non-verbal communication).
It must then be proposed that apes other than man also have such behavioral strictures (i.e. morals) based on empathy and reciprocal altruism. Such behavioral regulations have been witnessed by those who study ape behavior; Dian Fossey and Jane Goodall being the most famous. This proposal must then logically be extended to monkeys and other primates and thence to mammals and perhaps to chordates since all have a common genetic ancestry. Consideration as regards the sophistication of those codes depend on the level of social organization perceived in each group as well as the size and make-up of the brains of each of species.
Empathy is the key that enables a group to be cohesive and self-sustaining; the stronger look after the weaker, parents look after children, leaders look after their social group. It is also contended that much of what had developed is initiated biologically, genetically, perhaps in the structure of the brains of individuals of each of the aforementioned groups. The genetic code of a population was passed on to the next generation as a result of the first population thriving by dint of empathy and the primal moral code that stems from that empathetic behavior.
Basically, it must be asserted that morality is an emergent property which develops from the cerebral cortex in the brains of hominids and mammals. The cerebral cortex, with its typical layered organization, is found among mammals, including humans, and non-avian reptiles such as lizards and turtles. Likewise, the anterior insular cortex is a mammalian brain structure.
It has been observed that small mammals (dogs, cats, etc.) appear to have modes of behavior which indicate that they have a sense fairness and propriety. Anyone who has ever had a pet or an animal companion can attest to the idea that animals are empathic. That animals organize in groups is verified by the observance of prides, flocks, herds, schools and flights. Such organization is a matter of social necessity which in turn is engendered biologically.
Dr. Forrest Valkai, a biologist, speaks often of empathy; specifically, that empathy in humans is biological, based in evolutionary science. He cites the skull of a Homo Erectus which is toothless. He points out that the skull shows that jaws healed after tooth loss indicating that the individual lived long enough to heal from the loss of his teeth.
Being without teeth would have been a distinct liability for any individual of his species. Even though he (male) was without teeth – which were used as tools as well as mastication of food – the individual survived to a relative old age.
Once again, this indicates that the individual was provided for; soft food was prepared (perhaps pre-chewed) and given him to eat. His duties as a group member must also have been undertaken by his care-givers. Dr Valkai cites that specific part of the brain mentioned earlier – the anterior insular cortex - which would have been ‘inherited’ by our species (Homo Sapiens) from Homo Erectus, which lived more than a million years earlier!
‘An international team led by researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York has for the first time shown that one area of the brain, called the anterior insular cortex, is the activity center of human empathy, whereas other areas of the brain are not.’
Empathy, the ability to put oneself in the ‘shoes’ of another, to re-state for emphasis, is the key to morality (i.e. a code of behavior acceptable within a group). Which, again, means that empathy may well be the basis of moral and social systems of organization. And it is the result of genetic evolution of the human species.
It has been claimed amongst humanists that secular morality is superior to moral codes derived from deities. Thus, the assertion concerning empathy as a biological basis for moral codes might be limited to what is called ‘secular morality’ and considered apart from moral codes bequeathed by ‘god’ figures. That makes the task of delineating the two less daunting yet still massive.
Secular morality has been condensed to ‘what promotes well-being’. That well-being is experienced by both the individual in a group and the group at large. Theft is a harm to the individual who has lost something by theft. It is also a harm to the group at large because if theft were to become pervasive in the group, more individuals would be harmed by theft. Thus, theft would be banned on moral grounds because it harms both the individual and the group at large. The same could be said for murder or assault, lying, fraud and deception. Empathy drives this injunction against theft.
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