NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #31/NN_1992_31.iso/spool/soc/bi/17179

Text File | 1992-12-22 | 3.2 KB | 70 lines

Newsgroups: soc.bi
Path: sparky!uunet!mcsun!ieunet!tcdcs!maths.tcd.ie!longvalley!cjmchale
From: [e-mail] (Ciaran McHale)
Subject: Re: Understanding
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Organization: DSG, Dept. of Computer Science, Trinity College Dublin
References: <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]>
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 17:03:29 GMT
Lines: 59

In <[e-mail]>
[e-mail] (Guy Barry) writes:
>I think Ciaran and I may be slightly at cross-purposes here.  I'm viewing
>"understanding" in this context as primarily an emotional thing, whereas
>he's viewing it as primarily an intellectual thing.  I think that's what
>forms the basis of our disagreement.  There's a sort of emotional
>understanding which is just reacting to people's feelings on a gut
>level, quite independently of any sort of intellectual content.
>Maybe if I use "empathy" for the first and "comprehension" for
>the second it'll help to clear things up.

I think that sums up our differences quite well. Having recognised this,
I don't think there is much else left to discuss since I don't think a
discussion about whether or not "empathy" is more important than
"comprehension" would be fruitful. As such, I won't be responding to the
bulk of your posting, but rather to just a few odds and ends which we
may be able to tidy up.

>[on reading books]
>>>That's certainly very useful if you want to gain an appreciation of
>>>the experiences of women *in general*, but it's not the same as
>>>relating on an individual level.
>>
>>My point was that reading such books might help you understand the
>>general concepts. If you can manage that then it should help quite a lot
>>if/when a person tries to relate their own specific story. Besides, very
>>often, men want to understand the general issues rather than the
>>specifics of one woman's experiences. In this case, the book will be
>>just as suited (probably more so) as hearing one woman tell her specific
>>story.
>
>I agree -- but we're back to comprehension rather than empathy.  The
>two are both worthwhile, but they're completely different.  Ideally
>you need both -- one is no substitute for the other.

My point is that comprehension can aid empathy, at least for me.
Certainly, I can empathise much better if I have a comprehension of the
issues. Your mileage seems to vary in this regard (you can empathise
with or without comprehension).

>>Let me rephrase the above into the following dialogue.
>>
>>    Man:    Please tell me about what it's like to suffer sexual
>>        harassment on a daily basis.
>
>Whoa, stop.  Do you *really* ask women questions like this?  If that's
>really all you want to know, then yes, go and buy a book on it.  But
>I want to understand people as people, not as case studies.

The question isn't whether I, personally, ask questions like that.
Rather, the question is whether such questions get asked. From my
experience, the answer is Yes.


Ciaran.
--
---- Ciaran McHale ([e-mail])
\bi/ Department of Computer Science, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland.
 \/  Telephone: [phone] FAX: [phone]