You make such an interesting point about Foggy not being as empathetic as people write him as which is something I've never really considered because I enjoy that aspect of fanon, but now that you've said it, you're absolutely right. That's not to say that Foggy isn't in essence a good person but deep empathy isn't his strong suit. He cares about the people surrounding him but it seems not to the almost aggressive and absorbing way Matt has been shown to. Foggy is average not only in that he isn't flipping across rooftops but also in the battles he chooses to fight and causes he takes on. It's "just call the police" instead of risking everything yourself. It makes me wonder if that originates from their different upbringings and different conditions? I could probably write an essay about it ahahaha 😅
To be fair - deep empathy is not a strong suit for most people. :) I wouldn’t say that Matt is particularly strong in expressing it either (though, I’d argue he is capable of feeling it more - in fact, his powers probably contribute to it). I think the harder question to answer (not that you asked it :) ) is - what drives Matt and Foggy to do what they do, and how much empathy is a part of it? @ceterisparibus116 and I have tossed this one around several times. I think their differences lie in the sizes of their moral circles - i.e. the people to whom they feel like they have a moral responsibility to care for and treat with justice, be loyal to them, have similar values to them, even to our possible detriment. (See writings of Peter Singer or Simon Laham for a much more particular explanation of this, if you are interested). So, for Foggy - his moral circle is much narrower. He is family oriented. His definition of family, of course, includes not just blood family, but Matt and Karen. So - for them - Foggy will go over and above anything he would do for just random citizen. Foggy’s “drive” for justice actually comes from following Matt, as his family member - he basically adopted Matt’s values not just because he feels they are right (he probably does, but that’s secondary) - but out of loyalty and love for Matt. Which is probably the main reason he was so pissed in Nelson V Murdock: not only dis Matt fail to display the same level of loyalty to Foggy as Foggy did for him, by lying to Foggy for years, but Matt’s values are not what Foggy believes them to be. So, Matt was doubly amoral, in Foggy’s view: Matt was making morally-dubious choices as far as the principle of lawful justice is concerned, AND Matt was disloyal to his family. All of this is not to say that Foggy doesn’t want to help anyone outside his moral circle, but the level of his own detriment (or detriment to those in his moral circle) that he’d put up with is less. For Matt, his moral circle includes the whole city, particularly the victims of injustice (whom he hears on nightly basis). His is the logic of “I can do something about people’s suffering, therefore it is my responsibility”. Which is why he often disregards the needs of his family (Foggy and Karen), in favour of the more pressing needs of other people. He has a lot more to balance. (Which he can’t, because it’s not humanly possible. Add to that self-loathing, disbelief in being worthy of human affection and acceptance or any regard at all, unless he is Doing Something Worthy + abandonment issues + Catholic Guilt + perfectionistic/neurotic personality - and you get the Matt-with-one-foot-in-depression-pit that we know an love :) ) But, how much is “empathy” a driver/contributor to the actions of Foggy and Matt vis-a-vis those who fall into their moral circles? Well, performance of caring or just acts does not require empathy per se. Sympathy, logic, even self-interest can result in the same acts. I think Foggy is strong on sympathy - i.e. he feels sorry for someone and tries to help them (e.g. Mrs Cardenas). But empathy - to take on someone’s alternative set of views - to understand them and understand their actions - that is uncomfortable for him. Maybe, it’s anxiety-raising. He avoids doing that.
But how much is Matt driven by empathy vs sympathy vs moral sense of justice? Oh boy, I struggle with this one... There’s a mixture of everything in it. On one hand - his senses make him very aware of what other people feel, which is the primary component of empathy. I think he gets overwhelmed by that - which is where anger (the Devil) comes into that. He fights to stop the injustice both for the sake of restoration of the justice and to not feel other’s pain. Anger - being an instinctual response to threat - has a side-effect of shutting down empathy. It’s sort of the same mechanism that parents get when they get angry at their crying child and yell “Stop crying!” The biological empathic response to crying just hurt the parents, they just want it to end, and aggressively shut it down. At the same time, this cycle of - empathy=hurt=anger - well, it’s not exactly a cycle that reinforces voluntary expressions of empathy. So - I recon, Matt avoids it almost as much as Foggy, except - he can’t avoid it. That’s not how Matt is built, and his senses don’t allow him. Honestly, I think the difference here also lies in their personality types. Foggy is more extraverted. More open to new experiences, he is calmer - he is just more positive. Matt - as I said, more neurotic, introverted, closed-off, angry. Of course, all these traits were definitely reinforced by their family experiences (Foggy felt safer and more loved throughout his childhood - his world was less threatening to him.) But, the, somewhat-paradoxical outcome, though, is that Foggy still protects himself from the hurtful effects of empathy as much (or maybe, even more) than Matt, who has much stronger reasons to do so. And that, I think, is just down to who they are.
Anyway, I wrote an essay! :) And, I welcome your essays on the subject :)
