When we watch someone move, get injured, or express emotion, our brain doesn’t just see it—it partially feels it. Researchers found eight body-like maps in the visual cortex that organize what we see in the same way the brain organizes touch. These maps help us instantly understand actions, emotions, and intentions in others. The discovery sheds light on human empathy and opens doors for new brain-based therapies and AI systems that better understand the body. (source)
So empathy is something we feel and experience also because the brain helps us feel and experience it. One would add, so are the other emotions.
So natural.
So… unavoidable.
What difference does it make then if we feel one thing or the other? If all feelings are just brain reactions to what we sense around us? Well, I could feel sorry for me. For being just an automaton with no sense of self.
But I do feel Me! And I know the importance of what I feel. I believe I can control it. Change it. And feel things despite of what I feel! Free will.
That is the essence of being a human being!
Being sad when all things are fine.
Smiling while alive even though you know that you will die…
Oh, dear brain.
No, you could never make me happy inside the void.
Harmonia Psychologica 
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