em·pa·thy
ˈempəTHē/Submit
noun
noun: empathy
the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.
Origin
early 20th century: from Greek empatheia (from em- ‘in’ + pathos ‘feeling’) translating German Einfühlung .
in·tu·i·tive
inˈt(y)ooədiv/Submit
adjective
adjective: intuitive
using or based on what one feels to be true even without conscious reasoning; instinctive.
"I had an intuitive conviction that there was something unsound in him"
synonyms: instinctive, instinctual; More
innate, inborn, inherent, natural, congenital;
unconscious, subconscious, right-brained, involuntary, visceral;
informalgut
"an intuitive grasp of the truth"
(chiefly of computer software) easy to use and understand.
Origin
late 15th century (originally used of sight, in the sense ‘accurate, unerring’): from medieval Latin intuitivus, from Latin intueri (see intuit).
I thought we could reference the definition and origin of the word in our discussion.
I have been all my life a hunter of animals for food. All big game, birds and fish. When I killed my first deer it was unlike any experience I have ever had. I felt a primal energy in what I was doing and couldn't even keep my hands from shaking while holding the rifle. After I shot the deer and it was bleeding out I had a sense of accomplishment in the fact that I just provided meat for my family by my own hands. We waited for 30 minutes before approaching the deer and when I first saw it on the ground I immediately felt remorse for what I had done as I started to feel empathy for the deer. My hunting partner could sense this and told me that what I had done was OK because I would provide food for my family and it was the way of life. I rationalized this in my brain and decided I would accept what he said. The next thing to do is gut the animal. I still remember this experience vividly as it was very traumatic. It was then that I learned what an big game animal looks like on the inside and what it looks like with its skin off. I immediately related it to what a human would look like in the same condition yet I didn't empathize with that thought because I think I was still in shock. I proceeded to kill many more animals over my lifetime and I became conditioned to it without giving it a second thought.
Enter my awakening. I continued to eat meat up until a month ago when I had an experience. I had learned about half a year ago that human cannibalism was practiced among the self titled "elite" and was beginning to be pushed into the mainstream and this thought disturbed me yet I still ate meat of an animal. It wasn't until I realized that the "elite" where hunting us and eating us that I was hit with a major dose of empathy for the animals I was hunting and eating and I could no longer eat another animal because I felt I would be a hypocrite for telling an elite they couldn't eat me but I ate animals.
My question I'm hoping you can help me with sphinx is did I experience intuitive empathy or realized empathy?