The word ‘Empathy’ was coined in the first decade of the 20th Century as a suitably ‘English’ translation of the German word ‘Einfühlung’ (literally ‘in-feeling’) which had been circulating for some decades earlier in German intellectual circles in the disciplines of phenomenology, psychology and aesthetics. While the predominant connotation of the word concerns interpersonal relations – typically ‘putting oneself in another’s shoes’, either cognitively or emotionally – this has not been its only meaning. In fact, even among the technical experts, ‘Empathy’ has never had a consistent definition, so one really needs to speak of ‘Empathies’ – a set of concepts that (arguably) possess a ‘family resemblance’. For forty years or so the word was used almost exclusively by scholars and experts, but after the Second World War it entered into our general public discourse and has become a widely used term. By the start of the 21st Century ‘Empathy’ was being promoted in publications and speeches (for example by President Obama) as being what the world really needs to make our lives more moral, peaceful and agreeable. More recently, a reaction against such ‘Pro-Empathy’ positions has been evidenced in publications with titles like ‘The Dark Side of Empathy’ and ‘Against Empathy’ (e.g. the book by Paul Bloom). They argue that ‘Empathy’ can be (and regularly is!) readily used for immoral purposes and for undermining public well-being. Over the same period, advances in neurological brain studies (e.g. the discovery of ‘mirror neurons’) and animal behavioural studies have demonstrated that forms of ‘Empathy’ are scientifically well-founded in both humans and in some animal species. Contemporary debates over ‘Empathies’ extend beyond the moral issues, covering ‘In-Group’ and ‘Out-Group’ varieties, ‘Zero Degrees of Empathy’ (Simon Baron Cohen) and just how ‘Empathy’ relates to ‘Emotion’. Can a philosophically satisfying account of ‘Empathies’ be offered that encompasses all of these disparate issues? An attempt will be made in this talk to sketch just such a philosophically informative overview.
