Conversations on Empathy – Interdisciplinary perspectives on empathy, imagination and othering

Mezzenzana, Francesca und Peluso, Daniela M. (2023): Conversations on Empathy – Interdisciplinary perspectives on empathy, imagination and othering. In: Mezzenzana, Francesca und Peluso, Daniela M. (eds.) : Conversations on Empathy : Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Imagination and Radical Othering. London ; New York: Routledge, Taylor&Francis Group. pp. 1-24

Abstract

In the public and political arenas, many have argued that we are in desperate need of greater empathy – be this with our neighbours, refugees, war victims, the vulnerable, or disappearing animal and plant species. Perhaps nowhere have these calls for empathy been more visible than in former US President Barack Obama’s warning that the United States is undergoing an “empathy deficit” which needs to be urgently solved. This chapter examines the ways in which empathy enables us to understand, imagine, and create otherness, particularly in instances when the other may not be directly perceivable and indeed radically different from one’s self, such as in the case of a fictional character, an animal, or a robot. Otherness and the imagination are intrinsic to any debate on empathy. The chapter also presents an overview on the key concepts discussed in this book.

• Item Type: Book Section
• Faculties: Languages and Literatures > Department 3
• Research Centers: Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society (RCC)
• Subjects: 300 Social sciences > 300 Social sciences, sociology and anthropology; 800 Literature > 800 Literature, rhetoric and criticism
• ISBN: 978-1-032-03966-4; 978-1-003-18997-8; 978-1-032-01915-4
• Place of Publication: London ; New York
• Language: English