TED Community » Pilar Alvarez

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• A reply on Talk: Joan Halifax: Compassion and the true meaning of empathy

  Oct 24 2012: "All Buddhist "sects" believe in the basic tenant of life-death-rebirth."
  
  Not true. Many "real" Buddhists don't believe in a literal rebirth after death. Besides, from what I understand, it's not about beliefs or dogmas.

• A reply on Conversation: "Morality" is an abused term/concept. Can you suggest a solid definition?

  Nov 6 2011: Right, empathy is just one of the feelings he seems to associate with behaving "morally".
  
  I think you should take empathy for what it is, not a comforting feeling necessarily.
  
  It seems to me you are twisting a bit Paul Zack's talk, what he seemed to be saying is, look we've observed trust is more prevalent in the presence of higher levels oxytocin, that's it. Nowhere is he pushing we should all be pumping oxytocin pills in order to have a better world where everything is trust and good feelings, in his talk he actually hints caution against that conclusion.

• A comment on Conversation: "Morality" is an abused term/concept. Can you suggest a solid definition?

  Nov 5 2011: Paul Zak is clearly using the term "morality" to mean empathy, not a thought but a feeling. I too feel uncomfortable with the term morality being thrown out there so freely as it has the right or wrong, black and white connotations. Either for the sake of brevity or maybe because of his particular background that's the word he's using, and hey, it's his talk. I do believe we all have a personal sense of what's fair, you could call that a "moral" sense if you want. Whatever it is, it seems clear you cannot separate the rational from the emotional when it comes to making "moral" decisions, they are interconnected. That's where oxytocin seems to come into play.
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  A reply on Talk: Helen Fisher: Why we love, why we cheat

  Oct 11 2011: "A lot of women are inarticulate and stupid", thanks for generalizing, that certainly wasn't sexist.
  "(just as a lot of men are the same way)", so basically one would conclude after reading your comment, a lot of the human race is stupid. I just wonder where do you go from there.
  
  It should be obvious that the ability to be verbally articulate is influenced by the quality of your education, social status, and your natural aptitudes. What Helen seems to be saying is that given equal upbringing, say among brother and sister, the girl has the potential to be better at verbal expression. In my personal observation, which is not scientific and Helen mentions this too, the differences between two different gender siblings, their particular types of interests, how they communicate, and yes their verbal aptitudes, can be significantly apparent from an early age. Well, sometimes scientific studies just confirm what everybody knows already by just noticing and paying attention.