Empathy: Philosophical and Psychological Perspectives
Amy Coplan and Peter Goldie
Abstract
Empathy has for a long time, since at least the seminal work of David Hume and Adam Smith, been seen as centrally important in relation to our capacity to gain a grasp of the content of other people’s minds, and to predict and explain what they will think, feel, and do, and in relation to our capacity to respond to others ethically. In addition, empathy is now reinstated as being centrally important in aesthetics, in relation to our engagement with works of art and with fictional characters. This collection draws together nineteen original chapters on empathy in each of these areas, written by ... More
Empathy has for a long time, since at least the seminal work of David Hume and Adam Smith, been seen as centrally important in relation to our capacity to gain a grasp of the content of other people’s minds, and to predict and explain what they will think, feel, and do, and in relation to our capacity to respond to others ethically. In addition, empathy is now reinstated as being centrally important in aesthetics, in relation to our engagement with works of art and with fictional characters. This collection draws together nineteen original chapters on empathy in each of these areas, written by leading researchers across a wide range of disciplines, together with an extensive Introduction by the editors. The individual chapters reveal how important it is, in a wide range of fields of enquiry, to bring to bear an understanding of the role of empathy in its various guises. This volume will make a helpful and lasting contribution to the continuing debate, in philosophy, in psychology, and elsewhere.
Keywords:
empathy,
mind-reading,
ethics,
aesthetics,
sympathy,
mirror neurons,
simulation,
emotional contagion,
emotion,
verstehen
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2011 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780199539956 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: January 2012 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199539956.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
Amy Coplan, editor
California State University, Fullerton
Peter Goldie, editor
University of Manchester
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