Compassion is an evolutionary, moral force that is a necessary output of vertebrate evolution and that vertebrates, including humans, exhibit it as a result of suffering for oneself and others. It predates the Anthropocene, and is engrained in the emergent properties of the vertebrate brain, particularly through the evolution of the oxytocin pathway in the mesolimbic system. I suggest it can be cultivated and enhanced but is entrenched in our genetics and epigenetics as a response to help relieve suffering from oneself and others. Here, I present an origin story for the role of compassion across all species.
⓿ This proposes compassion is a phylogenetically basal condition that predates the Anthropocene, and prior to the vertebrates and basal to the invertebrates.
⓿ There is a neurological basis for empathy and results in the output of the emergent properties of the brain.
⓿ The concept of empathy and compassion as a theological component has independently evolved multiple times and not unique to humans.
⓿ The Hippocratic Oath may well have been a preordained concept as a result of the evolution of the human brain.
Compassion, Oxytocin, Evolution, Neuroscience
