I See You
Interspecies Empathy and 'Avatar'
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jsrnc.v4i4.457Keywords:
empathy, environmental studies, hature religions, AvatarAbstract
I explore empathic dimensions of James Cameron’s film Avatar’s central metaphor of seeing others, and the uses of empathy and empathic bonding throughout the film, both between humans and the Na’vi, and between the Na’vi and the animals that inhabit their world. Empathy entails an ability to see and feel the world from another’s perspective—feeling with rather than feeling for. Jake Sully’s identity as shifting, and boundary-crossing, makes him an especially good candidate for empathic cultivation. Sully assumes an avatar identity, stepping into a Na’vi form but also trying on a range of different perspectives, as part of his education in empathy and his spiritual transformation. The film sheds light on the complexity, fragility, and dangers of empathy, as well as its potential as an environmental and humanitarian value. Avatar suggests empathy’s perils, but also illustrates that empathy, properly oriented and cultivated, is an important environmental disposition encouraging appreciation of otherness.
References
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Batson, C. Daniel. 2009. ‘These Things Called Empathy: Eight Related but Distinct Phenomena’, in J. Decety and W. Ickes (eds.), The Social Neuroscience of Empathy (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press): 2-15.
Biever, Celeste. 2006. ‘For a New Personality, Click Here’, New Scientist 189.2540: 30.
Carson, Rachel. 1999. ‘Memo to Mrs. Eales on Under the Sea Wind’, in L. Lear (ed.), Lost Woods: The Discovered Writing of Rachel Carson (Boston: Beacon): 53-62.
Chismar, Douglas. 1988. ‘Empathy and Sympathy: The Important Difference’, Journal of Value Inquiry 22.4: 257-66.
Cohen, Adam. 2009. ‘Next Generation 3-D Medium of “Avatar” Underscores its Message’, New York Times, December 26. Online: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/26/opinion/26sat4.html.
Darwall, Stephen. 1998. ‘Sympathy, Empathy, Care’, Philosophical Studies 89: 261-82.
Decety, Jean, and Meghan Meyer. 2008. ‘From Emotion Resonance to Empathic Understanding: A Social Developmental Neuroscience Account’, Development and Psychopathology 20: 1053-80.
Everding, H. Edward, and Lucinda A. Huffaker. 1998. ‘Educating Adults for Empathy: Implications of Cognitive Role-Taking and Identity Formation’, Religious Education 93.4: 413-30.
Hoffman, Martin L. 2000. Empathy and Moral Development (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
Johnston, Lucas F. 2010. ‘From Biophilia to Cosmophilia: The Role of Biological and Physical Sciences in Promoting Sustainability’, Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture 4.1: 7-23.
Kellert, Stephen. 2005. Building for Life: Designing and Understanding the Human–Nature Connection (Chicago: Island Press).
Krznaric, Roman. 2008. ‘Empathy and Climate Change: Proposals for a Revolution of Human Relationships’. Online: http://www.romankrznaric.com/Publications/Empathy%20and%20Climate%20Change%20Krznaric.pdf.
Leopold, Aldo. 1949. A Sand County Almanac (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
Louv, Richard. 2005. Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-De_cit Disorder (Chapel Hill: Algonquin).
Midgley, Mary. 2002. Beast and Man: The Roots of Human Nature (New York: Routledge).
Moeller, Susan. 1999. Compassion Fatigue: How the Media Sell Disease, Famine, War and Death (New York: Routledge).
Morrison, Rodger. 2009. ‘Empathy from Avatars: Propositions for Improving Trust Development in Pseudo-Social Relationships with Avatars’, European Journal of Social Sciences 12.2: 298-309.
Piper, Adrian. 1991. ‘Impartiality, Compassion, and Modal Imagination’, Ethics 101: 726-57.
Rifkin, Jeremy. 2009. The Empathic Civilization: The Race to Global Consciousness in a World in Crisis (New York: Tarcher/Penguin).
Sagan, Carl. 1980. Cosmos (New York: Random House).
Sherman, Nancy. 1998. ‘Empathy and Imagination’, Midwest Studies in Philosophy 22: 82-119.
Snow, Nancy E. 2000. ‘Empathy’, American Philosophical Quarterly 37.1: 65-78.
Strayer, Janet, and William Roberts. 1989. ‘Children’s Empathy and Role Taking: Child and Parental Factors, and Relations to Prosocial Behavior’, Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology 10: 227-39.
Taylor, Bron R. 2010. Dark Green Religion: Nature Spirituality and the Planetary Future (Berkeley: University of California Press).
White, Randy. 2001. ‘Moving from Biophobia to Biophilia’. Online: http://www.whitehutchinson.com/children/articles/biophilia.htm1.
Wilson, John P. 2005. The Posttraumatic Self: Restoring Meaning and Wholeness to Personality (New York: Routledge).
Wispé, Lauren. 1987. ‘History of the Concept of Empathy’, in N. Eisenberg and J. Strayer (eds.), Empathy and its Development (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press): 17-37.
Zukerman, Wendy. 2010. ‘The Real Avatar: Body Transfer Turns Men into Girls’, New Scientist, 13 May. Online: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18896-thereal-avatar-body-transfer-turns-men-into-girls.html.
Published
2011-01-01
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Sideris, L. H. (2011). I See You: Interspecies Empathy and ’Avatar’. Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, 4(4), 457-477. https://doi.org/10.1558/jsrnc.v4i4.457
