ABSTRACT

This chapter provides a more systematic and detailed account of the empathy test and the principles it supports. The principle of absolute equality of voting, of total consensus, is central to the use of empathy in the test. It is a means, initially, of ensuring that everyone's vote is equal, that everyone, without exception, has an equal say in the outcome and, as a result of that, a means of imposing a stringent criterion of empathic attunement on the part of the author. Second principle is would-be authors of the theory of justice, that is, those authors of interest to the inhabitants of City Gamma, must themselves pass an empathy test. Third principle, the author notes the empathy test resembles an Ultimatum Game, at least partially. In the Ultimatum Game, as commonly used in psychology, neuroscience and economics, there are two parties in a dyadic relationship, a proposer and a responder.