![]() Slipping even for a moment into the perspective of someone who is turning black in a pillory or desperately pushing burning faggots away from her body or convulsing under the two hundredth stroke of the lash may give a person second thoughts as to whether these cruelties should ever be visited upon anyone.Īdopting other people's vantage points can alter one's convictions in other ways. It's not a big leap to suppose that the habit of reading other people's words could put one in the habit of entering other people's minds, including their pleasures and pains. Stepping into someone else's vantage point reminds you that the other fellow has a first- person, present-tense, ongoing stream of consciousness that is very much like your own but not the same as your own. As we shall see, "empathy" in the sense of adopting someone's viewpoint is not the same as "empathy" in the sense of feeling compassion toward the person, but the first can lead to the second by a natural route. Not only are you taking in sights and sounds that you could not experience firsthand, but you have stepped inside that person's mind and are temporarily sharing his or her attitudes and reactions. When someone else's thoughts are in your head, you are observing the world from that person's vantage point. ![]() ![]() ![]() Reading is a technology for perspective-taking. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |