I'm honestly not sure how that's a personal attack (and I'm very much open to understanding your interpretation) but I definitely should have addressed it directly to you and for that I apologize.
That said, I do stand by the observation. Nitpicking small details that are unimportant to the overall point serves no one well and results in a waste of everyone's time.
Well, unfortunately your comment is gone now (I did not ask for it to be removed, nor did I 'flag' it [I can't]). If you repost it I could give a better analysis, but basically you were stating that I didn't "learn" anything.
1) You do not know what I "learn" or do not "learn" from any particular thing.
2) You do not know what lesson was being taught (or even if one was trying to be taught).
Your consideration that some things are "small details that are unimportant" is purely your consideration. While you may not see the importance of such details, others might. In this case, I think it is important that words actually have meaning and that if some words do not have an apparent logical meaning it should be explored more to come up with words that do have an apparent logical meaning (particularly when words, on their face, are self-contradictory).
Or, at least, it should be explored more what the author actually meant, or, might have meant to write in stead.
'Pity and sorrow' is one of the definitions of the word sympathy, but that's not the meaning generally implied when used in comparison to empathy.
"Sympathy (from the Greek words syn "together" and pathos "feeling" which means "fellow-feeling") is the perception, understanding, and reaction to the distress or need of another human being."[0]
"When you sympathize with someone, you have compassion for that person, but you don’t necessarily feel her feelings."[1]
Generally the difference between empathy and sympathy is the internal response to the feelings of others. If you personally are feeling the same thing as the person, then that's generally empathy, otherwise it's generally sympathy.
