The Secret Underground History of Empathy: UChicago Graham School Bastille Day Talk by Lou Agosta  

This is the complete talk: Explore the secret underground history of empathy in such thinkers as David Hume, Immanuel Kant, Theodor Lipps, Sigmund Freud, Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger in this lecture.

Surveys show that most people think that empathy is compassion. The world certainly needs more compassion, but it is not synonymous with empathy. Empathy tells you what the other person is experiencing as a vicarious experience, and not an identification; compassion (and ethics) tells you what to do about it. Empathy is oxygen for the soul. If one is feeling short of breath at the end of the school year or business cycle, it is possible that they are in need of expanded empathy.