Empathy: Philosophical and Psychological Perspectives

by Amy Coplan, Peter Goldie

Overview

Empathy has for a long time, at least since the eighteenth century, been seen as centrally important in relation to our capacity to gain a grasp of the content of other people's minds, and 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 seen as having a central role in aesthetics, in the understanding of our engagement with works of art and with fictional characters. A fuller understanding of empathy is now offered by the interaction of research in science and the humanities. Empathy: Philosophical and Psychological Perspectives draws together nineteen original chapters by leading researchers across several 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 offers the ideal starting-point for the exploration of this intriguing aspect of human life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198706427
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	07/29/2014
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	432
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Amy Coplan is Associate Professor of Philosophy at California State University, Fullerton. Her primary research interests are in philosophy of emotion, aesthetics (especially philosophy of film), feminist philosophy, and ancient Greek philosophy. She has published articles on the nature and importance of emotion and on various forms of emotional engagement with film, including empathy, sympathy, and emotional contagion. She is currently editing a collection on the film Blade Runner for the Routledge series Philosophers on Film.

Peter Goldie was the Samuel Hall Chair in Philosophy at the University of Manchester. His main philosophical interests included the philosophy of mind, ethics, and aesthetics, and particularly questions concerning value and how the mind engages with value. His books include The Emotions: A Philosophical Exploration (OUP, 2000), and On Personality (Routledge, 2004), and the co-authored Who's Afraid of Conceptual Art? (Routledge, 2010). He edited Understanding Emotions: Mind and Morals (Ashgate, 2002), and The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Emotion (OUP, 2010), and co-edited Philosophy and Conceptual Art (OUP, 2007).

Table of Contents

Introduction, Amy Coplan & Peter GoldieSection I. Empathy and Mind1. Understanding Empathy: Its Features and Effects, Amy Coplan2. Empathy as a Route to Knowledge, Derek Matravers3. Two Routes to Empathy: Insights from Cognitive Neuroscience, Alvin I. Goldman4. Within Each Other: Neural Mechanisms for Empathy in the Primate Brain, Marco Iacoboni5. Empathy, Imitation, and the Social Brain, Jean Decety & Andrew N. Meltzoff6. Empathy for Objects, Gregory CurrieSection II. Empathy and Aesthetics7. Empathy, Expansionism, and the Extended Mind, Murray Smith8. An Empathic Eye, Dominic McIver Lopes9. Infectious Music: Music Listener Emotional Contagion, Stephen Davies10. Empathizing as Simulating, Susan L. Feagin11. On Some Affective Relatons between Audiences and Characters in Popular Fictions, Noel Carroll12. Empathy: Interpersonal vs. Artistic?, Graham McFeeSection III. Empathy and Morality13. Is Empathy Necessary for Morality?, Jesse J. Prinz14. Is Empathy a Virtue?, Heather D. Battaly15. Empathy, Justice, and the Law, Martin L. Hoffman16. Empathy and Trauma Culture: Imaging Catastrophe, E. Ann Kaplan17. Anti-empathy, Peter Goldie18. Empathy for the Devil, Adam Morton

Editorial Reviews

"A must have read for any researcher on empathy not only for researchers on empathy in philosophy."—Eva-Maria Engelen, British Journal of Aesthetics

"There is much here for deep reflection and the authors are to be commended highly for their enterprise in producing such an enormous, stimulating book on such a difficult and wide-ranging, inter-personal component of human behaviour."—Michael N. Marsh, ESSSAT News & Reviews

"I found the volume very stimulating and the breadth of discussion refreshing ... I highly recommend it to people interested in empathy and empathy-related phenomena." — Mind

From the Publisher