I might add this one to my reading list.
Rev, I used to think that all humans are born with the innate ability to show empathy. I've adjusted my thinking. I strongly feel that empathy is learned. If children don't have experiences with empathy, they grow up not knowing how to show it. As adults, they have to take deliberate steps to learn empathy. What are your thoughts?
Empathy could not exist if the hard wiring for its expression did not pre exist. It is one of those things like language. We come with a mentalese that makes us all receptive to language. As we have a language instinct we have an empathetic instinct. That is self evident in that we can be thoroughly be defined via reciprocal altruism in everything we do. Yes, it is what generates the misunderstanding that we have a selfish gene and act only if it maximizes a desired return.