Empathy Philosophical and Psychological Perspectives [Hardcover]

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 Perspectivesdraws 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.

Introduction,Amy Coplan & Peter Goldie
Section I. Empathy and Mind
1. Understanding Empathy: Its Features and Effects,Amy Coplan
2. Empathy as a Route to Knowledge,Derek Matravers
3. Two Routes to Empathy: Insights from Cognitive Neuroscience,Alvin I. Goldman
4. Within Each Other: Neural Mechanisms for Empathy in the Primate Brain,Marco Iacoboni
5. Empathy, Imitation, and the Social Brain,Jean Decety & Andrew N. Meltzoff
6. Empathy for Objects,Gregory Currie
Section II. Empathy and Aesthetics
7. Empathy, Expansionism, and the Extended Mind,Murray Smith
8. An Empathic Eye,Dominic McIver Lopes
9. Infectious Music: Music Listener Emotional Contagion,Stephen Davies
10. Empathizing as Simulating,Susan L. Feagin
11. On Some Affective Relatons betlsC