ERIC Number: EJ1339895
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2021
Pages: 13
Abstractor: As Provided
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ISSN: ISSN-2369-8659
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Trying to Bridge the Divide: A Phenomenological Footnote Regarding the Dichotomy between Empathy and Reasoning
Weber, Barbara; Asgari, Mahboubeh
Philosophical Inquiry in Education, v28 n3 p209-221 2021
In this paper, we discuss the historical relationship between empathy and reasoning from a historical and philosophical (continental and Western philosophy) point of view. We explain how empathy has lost its original aesthetic connotations through its journey from one language and culture to another. Nowadays, we often find a quite reduced understanding of empathy in psychology or education. Following this historical overview and opening up the notion of empathy to its aesthetic origins, we then apply a phenomenological lens and argue that reasoning and perspective-taking are interrelated with empathy, if we understand the importance of human embodiment: We argue that any reasonable argument relies on the fact that we indwell the world through a similar body. It is within this nexus of similarity and difference of embodiment and perceptions that our experiences can interlace. With this argument, we are hoping to address the distrust towards empathy as well as break open simplified conceptualizations of empathy in education towards a more complex understanding of this phenomenon.
Descriptors: Phenomenology, Empathy, Thinking Skills, Aesthetics, Educational Psychology, Perspective Taking, Educational Philosophy, Correlation, Western Civilization, Psychological Studies, Political Attitudes
Canadian Philosophy of Education Society. S-FG 6310 Faubourg Ste-Catherine Building, 1610 St. Catherine West, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, H4B 1R6. Tel: 514-758-7813; Web site: http://journals.sfu.ca/pie/index.php/pie
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
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Language: English
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