Single Idea 24006

[catalogued under 15. Nature of Minds / A. Nature of Mind / 4. Other Minds / c. Knowing other minds]

Full Idea

Empathy and in-his-shoes imagining are not sufficient for sympathy. Nor are they necessary. You can even sympathise with another when these are impossible, with the sufferings of a whale or a dog, for example.

Gist of Idea

Empathy and imagining don't ensure sympathy, and sympathy doesn't need them

Source

Peter Goldie (The Emotions [2000], 7 'Sympathy')

Book Reference

Goldie,Peter: 'The Emotions' [OUP 2002], p.216


A Reaction

Goldie is right that these distinct faculties are a blurred muddle in most of our accounts of dealing with other people. Empathy with a whale in not actually impossible, because we recognise their suffering, and we understand suffering.

Related Idea

Idea 24005 We know other's emotions by explanation, contagion, empathy, imagination, or sympathy [Goldie]