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sc94597 on 09 May 2015
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Troll_Whisperer said:
sc94597 said:

Does (domesticated) show strong empathy skills. They track human eye patterns and induce chemical reactions based on the emotions of their owners. In fact, Dogs are more empathetic than Chimps, with a detailed set of theory of mind skills.  They essentially were bred to be empathetic and in tune with human emotions. It was necessary for their survival. 

Ok, but if my girlfriend leaves me, my dog doesn't think "poor guy, I know how that feels". Empathy is understanding other's feelings and being able to imagine yourself in his shoes.

I mean, they might get basics like "sad" or "excited" and instinctively copy them, but that's it.

But whatever, this is far removed from the point of the thread anyway.

Sure there is always going to be a cognitive disadvantage which impedes how empathetic the dog can be, but this is not a binary of "has empathy"  vs. "does not have empathy." There are degrees of empathy. The cause of empathy in dogs is no different from the cause of empathy in humans. It is a mixture of chemical reactions induced by a combination of stimuli and cognitive processing. In the dog it is much more stimuli based, while in a human there exists empathy that is cognitive, but that doesn't mean there is not stimuli based empathy in humans and cognitive-based empathy in dogs. A lot of people will cry because they see somebody they love hurt without even understanding why they are hurt, for example. That is just as much empathy as understanding is. Empathy isn't just about understanding other people's emotions, but also about feeling other people's emotions. Sometimes it is necessary to understand one's emotions to feel them. Other times it is not. Dogs and Humans incorporate both. Humans being much more intelligent are capable of greater degrees of cognitive empathy, of course though.