Empathy :

{ April 21, 2009 @ 10:27 pm } · { Uncategorized }

Empathy :Although commonly used as simply a synonym for sympathy, the term empathy means more than just one’s identification with another’s feelings. Instead, it refers to the the imaginative projection of your own feelings into someone else. Thus, by starting out with your own feelings of happiness at some event, empathy allows you to abstract out the principle “such an event creates happiness” and then project that as a possible result in other people who experience a similar event. In this way, empathy is what allows you to treat other people as you yourself would like to be treated – which is what ethics and morality tend to be about. Empathy, along with reason and experience, form the foundation for secular and naturalistic ethical theories.What Empathy is not:1- An attempt to assert your opinion2- An exercise in convincing others of your point of view, or having them convince you of theirs3- Anything that starts with “I….” 4-Automatic agreement with the other individual’s perspective 5-Acknowledgment that you are wrong in any way.  Empathy is:1- Listening Asking questions – for aid in clarification and understanding 2-Temporarily suspending your own ideas, opinions, and emotions (particularly anger and resentment) Best when paired with validation