如果您知道成为另一个人的感觉，那么您怎么可能做一些会引起痛苦的事情呢？不过，问题在于，似乎有人在其中缺少那个富有想象力的部分。可能是他们是这样出生的 - 大脑中缺少某些东西 - 或者可能是因为他们从来没有被父母教给他人的同情。
(If you knew what is was like to be another person, then how could you possibly do something which would cause pain? The problem, though, was that there seemed to be people in whom that imaginative part was just missing. It could be that they were born that way--with something missing from their brains--or it could be that they became like that because they were never taught by their parents to sympathise with others.)
这句话反映了同理心和理解在人类互动中的重要性。它表明，如果一个人真正理解另一个人的感情和经历，就不可能给他们带来痛苦。这一观念强调了同情是指导道德行为和富有同情心行为的基本人类特征的观念。没有这种富有想象力的能力，个人可能无法认识到其行为对他人的影响，从而导致有害行为。
本文进一步探讨了某些人缺乏同理心的原因。它提高了某些人可能由于神经差异而缺乏富有想象力的理解的可能性，而另一些人则可能由于其成长经历而发展出来。如果父母不向孩子们灌输同情和同情心的价值观，那么后代可能会长大无法与他人的感受联系，最终影响他们的人际关系和道德决定。