Morality and Empathy in the Digital Age, in Is a Universal Morality Possible? eds. Ferenc Hörcher, Béla Mester, Zoltán Turgonyi, Budapest: L’Harmattan – HAS, 2015, 237-245.

A recurring element of theories concerning the origin of morality is that the human ability responsible for following rules is connected to empathy and solidarity towards others. The cognitive sciences reveal that this capability is largely dependent on the social development, the gradual formation of social behavior, and of behavioral control; and the results of contemporary neuroscience show what are the neural structures that anchor the sense of empathy and describe their specific characteristics, their developmental peculiarity. In addition to "moral sense" empathy is a high priority in the cultural togetherness, in elementary conditions of identification with the community. Through the change of environmental parameters (through the restructuring of social relationships, direct personal relationships split by media, and the fundamental cultural changes resulting from this media) the development occurs in other, imperfect ways. The presentation provides an overview of these changes and of their consequences and attempts to define the contemporary challenges of ethics with reinterpreting the communication based on digital devices, empathy, and belonging to a community in the digital environment.

At the end of the module participants should be able to acquire the following learning objectives: understand the difference between emotional and cognitive empathy; understand the difficulties of acceptance between diverse social groups; have a basic knowledge about complex and diverse societies, about the sources of complexity and diversity; use properly the basic concepts of social diversity; understand the roots of empathy and the problematics of empathy in the digital age; understand the relationship between empathy and inclusion, between empathetic acceptance of diverse social groups and social integration; develop a cognitive empathy towards disadvantaged groups; can develop empathetical acceptance in children towards diverse groups; have knowledge about how to build an empathetical, inclusive group of children with diverse family, ethnic, religious, or economic background.