Empathy: Emotional Contagion or Perspective Taking?
Discussion in the philosophy of animal minds over what constitutes empathy (and what kind of behavior defines it) typically defines it in one of two ways. 1) Emotional Contagion: Emotional mirroring/matching. Just a biologic impulse, no rationalization involved. You see, you associate with an emotion, and your body produces physiological markers of the same emotion. 2) Perspective taking: "Putting yourself in another person's shoes". Does the second definition of empathy require emotions? I don't think so. Here's an argument that perspective taking can be achieved by pure practical reason: P1. I have a perspective. P2. I am made up of biological systems. P3. The external world exists, and other biological systems exist. P4. Other biological systems act as though they have an inner life (or subjective experience). P5. Other people also have perspectives. My intuitions tell me that empathy is an emotion rather than an exercise in...