Human Empathy and Emotion

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Human Empathy and Emotion In the science fiction book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (1968) by Philip K. Dick, a man named Rick Deckard is an android bounty hunter for the San Francisco police department. The world is in a post apocalyptic state where almost every animal on the planet has died and the majority of the population of the Earth has emigrated to Mars. In order to move to Mars, you must first pass a type of IQ test. The people that do not pass, or choose not to take the test, have to stay on Earth. Most of these people are not wealthy enough to move so they decide to stay. One thing that makes people on Earth happy is the ability to own an animal. Being able to own and take care of a real live animal is almost like a milestone to citizens still living on earth. As a citizen still living on Earth, Rick strives to one day own his own animal; it is the one thing that can make him truly happy. In order to make money, Rick must kill these androids, nicknamed “andy’s” for short, that escaped from Mars in order to protect the remaining human race on Earth. The preferred method at the time to tell the Andy’s from the humans would be an empathy test. As Rick gives these empathy tests to suspected androids, he starts to question his own empathy and what truly drives his emotions. He starts showing empathy toward the androids he encounters, particularly the female ones. Having these emotions towards androids is the only thing, besides living animals, that can make Rick happy. A reoccurring theme in the book is the differences between emotion and empathy in regards to humans and emotion and empathy in regards to the “andy’s.” Throughout this paper, I will be discussing three different topics about empathy: how empathy works, how empathy starts to form within a person, and what makes a person empathetic. Being empathetic, or showing emotion towards
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