Empathy and Psychopathy

This week, as we continue our exploration of consciousness and free will, we’re going to touch on what we know about how people interact with one another.

Required Scientific Readings

• There is a single review article that I’d like you to read over. It’s a summary of the spectrum along which extreme selfishness and zealous selflessness lie and covers saintly and psychopathic behaviors and specifically talks about how neuroscience, genetics, and culture influence them. This is a long-ish article and contains a ton of hyperspecific detail, especially regarding the neuroscience and discussion of brain regions. You don’t need to understand all the technical jargon - attempt to get “big picture” ideas and definitions from the work if you can. Don’t forget that AI can sometimes be used to help parse pdfs, websites, or to help unpack technical language!

Required Philosophy Reading

There are one reading to complete for today. It provides an overview to a fascinating set of questions about the relationship between psychopathy and responsibility.

• Psychopathy and Responsibility Theory, by Paul Litton