This book represents a unique indispensable reflection on the interconnection between empathy and ethics. To what extent is it right to be empathetic? Can empathy be unethical? Or is there an ethical obligation to be empathetic? Do we educate our citizens and train our professionals to use the right form of empathy?
Phenomenological ethics is a relatively new approach to ethics whose emphasis is put on the description of the lived-experience and the ethical phenomenon. The essays offer phenomenological descriptions of the thorny problem pertaining to the interconnection of empathy and ethics essential for professionals and scholars of different fields, such as philosophy, psychiatry, health science, psychology, and sociology.
Contributors: Michael Agostinelli Jr., Elodie Boublil, Francesca Brencio, Manuel Camassa, Scott D. Churchill, Nicolas de Warren, Craig Derksen, John J. Drummond, Íngrid Vendrell Ferran, Jannik M. Hansen, Simon Høffding, Joel Krueger, Carlos Lobo, Esteban Marín-Ávila, Alexander Montes, Dermot Moran, Henning Nörenberg, Tone Roald, Eva Schwarz, Andrea Staiti, Joona Taipale, Stefano Vincini, Maren Wehrle, Dan Zahavi
Magnus Englander is associate professor at Malmö University and associate editor for the Journal of Phenomenological Psychology. His phenomenological research is situated within the interdisciplinary research context of Health and Society, with an interest in topics such as psychopathology, empathy, and qualitative research methodology. He is the author of multiple articles on phenomenological psychology and the editor of Phenomenology and the Social Context of Psychiatry (2018).
Susi Ferrarello is assistant professor at California State University, East Bay. She is a philosophical counselor and writes for Psychology Today. She has published novels, poetry, and academic books on philosophy, including Bioethics and Emotions; The Phenomenology of Sex, Love, and Intimacy; Ethical Experience: A Phenomenology; and Husserl’s Ethics and Practical Intentionality.
Chapter 1: Why Empathy Means Nothing—and Everything—for Ethics, John J. Drummond
Chapter 2: Ethics, Empathy, and Vulnerability: Trust as a Way of Making Sense of Our Vulnerability and Dependability, Esteban Marín-Ávila
Chapter 3: Emotion, Reality, and Ownership, Craig Derksen
Chapter 4: Embracing Ambiguity: Simone de Beauvoir’s Responsive Ethics, Maren Wehrle
Chapter 5: The Personalistic Attitude: Edmund Husserl and Edith Stein on Empathy as the Intuition of the Person as Value, Dermot Moran
Chapter 6: The Role of Empathy in the Affective Twist of Husserl’s Critique of an Axiological and Practical Reason, Carlos Lobo
Chapter 7: Phenomenology as Reverence: The Role of Reverence in the Phenomenological Method of Dietrich von Hildebrand, Alexander Montes
Chapter 8, “Against” Empathy: From the Isolated Self to Intersubjectivity in Martin Heidegger’s Thinking and the Consequences for Health Care, Francesca Brencio
Chapter 9: Being (N)One of Us: The Ethical and the Body, Henning Nörenberg
Chapter 10: Tomasello, Husserl, and the Cognitive Foundations of Morality, Andrea Staiti and Stefano Vincini
Chapter 11: Fiat cura, et pereat mundus: Husserl’s Phenomenology of Care and Commitment, Nicolas de Warren
Chapter 12: On the Problem of the Idealization of Empathy and Ethics, Magnus Englander and Susi Ferrarello
Chapter 13: Sharing and Other Illusions: Asymmetry in "Moments of Meeting", Joona Taipale
Chapter 14: Thinking With the Heart: From the Responsiveness of the Flesh to the Ethics of Responsibility, Elodie Boublil
Chapter 15: What Is Moral about Empathy?: Some Considerations about the Link between Empathy and Moral Judgment, Manuel Camassa
Chapter 16: Embodiment, Empathy, and the Call to Compassion: Engendering Care and Respect for ‘the Other’ in a More-Than-Human World, Scott D. Churchill
Chapter 17: Fictional Empathy, Imagination, and Knowledge of Value, Íngrid Vendrell Ferran
Chapter 18: Affective Depth and Value: On Theodor Lipps’s Theory of Aesthetic Empathy, Jannik M. Hansen and Tone Roald
Chapter 19: Music and Empathic Spaces in Therapy and Improvisation, Jannik Mosekjær Hansen, Simon Høffding and Joel Krueger
Chapter 20: To Step into the Life of Others: Professional Action, Empathy and an Ethics of Engagementt, Eva Schwarz
Chapter 21: An Empathy-Based Phenomenological Ethic for Gaming, Michael Agostinelli
Chapter 22: Empathy, Alterity, Morality, Dan Zahavi
About the Editors and Contributors
Empathy and Ethics is an impressive, timely, and original contribution. The explication of the connection between empathy and ethics is almost absent in contemporary literature, making the volume a novel contribution that should be of interest for a wide range of disciplines. The contributor list is impressive, including some top researchers in their respective fields, and the abstracts jointly indicate a comprehensive and balanced set of contributions that are both well connected and cover a lot of different ground.
— Mads Gram Henriksen, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
