What we will cover:
- If empathy is so great, why does there seem to be so little of it in the world?
- Can empathy be trained?
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.
BY LOU AGOSTA
