Empathy is empathy. Respect is respect. If you are saying that good is some combination of those two things (which excludes love from good, or honesty, or fun), then empathy would not be good without respect, and respect would not be good without empathy. That can't be true. Good, then, might be the lack of disrespect.
In fact, all these things are the rest state of human behavior, they are what we do if nothing stops us. Like water becomes ice if you stop heating it, when bad things stop messing with us, we become "good" by default. We are not separated from our fellows, we do not show disrespect, we do not lie, we have fun and we love.
Poor upbringing, abuse, bad childhood experiences, hateful teachings, these things are added to our behavior and change it into a lack of respect. The only way to get respect back is to work at removing those things, and when they are gone, respect and empathy will naturally appear in our foundational self. Balance will be restored, the balance of not having bad added to our system.
Exactly, but again, not harming others is the rest state. It is a zero point from which you cannot 'avoid doing harm even more'. Once you get to doing zero harm, you are at the lowest value. As in my essay, you are at zero height from the bottom, and can only move by adding to that value, doing some amount of harm. So harm is the real thing. Good is just a word for the natural state of being when nobody is harming anyone. You and they are resting at the zero point.
Empathy is empathy. Respect is respect. If you are saying that good is some combination of those two things (which excludes love from good, or honesty, or fun), then empathy would not be good without respect, and respect would not be good without empathy. That can't be true. Good, then, might be the lack of disrespect.
In fact, all these things are the rest state of human behavior, they are what we do if nothing stops us. Like water becomes ice if you stop heating it, when bad things stop messing with us, we become "good" by default. We are not separated from our fellows, we do not show disrespect, we do not lie, we have fun and we love.
Poor upbringing, abuse, bad childhood experiences, hateful teachings, these things are added to our behavior and change it into a lack of respect. The only way to get respect back is to work at removing those things, and when they are gone, respect and empathy will naturally appear in our foundational self. Balance will be restored, the balance of not having bad added to our system.
Empathy gives you the ability to know when you are harming others, when you are doing something against their will
So it's the lack of harming others which is good. I can agree with that.
That is exactly what gives morality its meaning and it's reason of existence, to avoid doing others harm.
Exactly, but again, not harming others is the rest state. It is a zero point from which you cannot 'avoid doing harm even more'. Once you get to doing zero harm, you are at the lowest value. As in my essay, you are at zero height from the bottom, and can only move by adding to that value, doing some amount of harm. So harm is the real thing. Good is just a word for the natural state of being when nobody is harming anyone. You and they are resting at the zero point.
I can "do good" in two ways: the first is avoiding harm, and the others is doing some good, ie, doing something somebody wants, needs or desires.