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Culture of Empathy
Builder:
Jan Slaby
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I am a junior professor in
philosophy at Free University Berlin, Germany.
I work in the Institute of Philosophy and in the research cluster Languages
of Emotion; my areas of expertise are philosophy of emotion, personhood,
theories of mind, phenomenology, critical philosophy of science
(particularly of psychiatry and neuroscience). |
against empathy and other philosophical beefs
Interview by Richard Marshall.
"‘Empathy is one of these fashionable watchwords of popular
science that is being publicly promoted in recent years (comparable to
‘resilience’, ‘depression’, ‘neuroplasticity’, ‘well-being’ and so much
more). There is a real and important phenomenon here, but it tends to
gets misconstrued, taken out of context, and then set absolute as if
everything depended on it when it comes to the future of humanity.‘"
Against Empathy: Critical Theory and the Social Brain
"The aim of this paper is to mount two distinct challenges to the
currently fashionable research and discourse on empathy.
First, the notion of empathetic
perspective-shifting – a conceptually demanding, high-level construal of
empathy that arguably captures the core meaning of the term – is
criticized from the standpoint of a philosophy of normatively
accountable agency. Empathy in this demanding sense fails to achieve a
true understanding of the other and instead imposes the empathizers
self-constitutive agency upon the person empathized with. Attempts to
‘simulate’ human agency, or attempts to emulate its cognitive or
emotional basis, inevitably distort their target phenomena in profound
ways.
Second, I question dominant trends within currently
prevailing empathy research from the perspective of a critical theory of
the human sciences. The current vogue of empathy research and popular
manifestos on the topic are troubling symptoms of a problematic
discursive formation that increasingly gains currency. I argue that the
de facto powerlessness of the individual in today’s network capitalism
is naturalized through a model of ‘visceral sociality’ that prizes
affective attachment and harmonious connectedness, providing a
nature-backed narrative of conformist, uncritical, domesticated
affectivity. The discursive regime supported by research on the social
brain sings a heroes song for the docile, the disempowered, the
politically dismantled. A change of tune is urgently needed."
June 8, 2013 - Against Empathy
by Glenn Wallis
"The possibility of empathy is a western-buddhist dogma. Empathy,
together with its near relative, compassion, may even be considered a
necessary axiom of contemporary x-buddhist belief, whether in a secular,
crypto, or traditional inflection. For, without the possibility of
empathy and compassion, x-buddhism loses its ethical footing, its prime
rationale for practice, and its very impetus toward the pro-social
utopian. In this post, I’d like to present a paper that challenges the
possibility of an activity that resembles our folk notions of “empathy.”
The article, by the German thinker Jan Slaby, is aptly title “Against
Empathy” (links below)."
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2012-08-(16-18) - What is empathy and what do we
need it for?
CFP, Conference, Stockholm, Södertörn
University, Stockholm Program.pdf |
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The last ten years we have witnessed an exploding
interest in the phenomenon of empathy. The wave of empathy studies
is psychology, philosophy, psychiatry and other disciplines is
linked to a parallel theoretical interest in the phenomena of
feeling, selfhood, inter-subjectivity and morality, but also to
practical attempts to understand and improve meetings between
workers and clients in different professions, such as health care
professions, teaching professions, psychotherapy or social work. To
be empathic is increasingly viewed as a must for any person working
in cooperation with and/or helping other people, although, as is
also pointed out, the empathy must be professional in character to
not produce destructive intimacy or burn out.
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Lou Agosta, University of Chicago;
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Thomas Fuchs, University of Heidelberg;
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Jodi Halpern, University of California Berkeley;
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Matthew Ratcliffe, Durham University;
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Jan Slaby, Freie Universität Berlin
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Jan Slaby backs out of doing an interview on his
Against Empathy paper.
" I don't feel like speaking extensively about empathy, as my
work on the topic is so far rather sketchy and general, "
Dear Jan
I read your paper, Against Empathy: Critical Theory and the Social
Brain. I'm Edwin Rutsch, director of the Center for Building a Culture
of Empathy. I've been interviewing researchers, scientists, educators,
artists, etc. from around the world via Google Hangouts about their
insights and experiences with empathy. I'd like to see if I could
line up an interview with you as well about your work on empathy.
If you’d be willing to do an interview, please let me know a good
time and date.
Warmly
Edwin
Dear Edwin,
thanks for this. Exciting website, great stuff! I'm happy to do the
interview - but maybe at a later date as I have a horribly busy month
with a lot of traveling coming up, and I'm much behind on my
commitments.
Could we envision a date in early July instead? the best woud be around
July
2 or 3 or again July 9 or 10.
best wishes,
Jan
Dear Edwin,
I'm sorry, I have to cancel the interview. I don't feel like speaking
extensively about empathy, as my work on the topic is so far rather
sketchy and general, and I like to do more research to make my views
firmer before I go online with an extensive q&a on the matter. I have to
postpone this for the time being, I hope you understand.
very best,
Jan
Hi Jan,
Sounds like you want to have more research on your views before you do
an interview. Perhaps you're feeling your arguments may not hold up or
they need more support?
I'm not wanting to attack your arguments but rather listen to, empathize
with and understand them. I think the core of what I heard in your paper
was that empathy could deflect real social change from happening, and in
some ways I think that is what my experience is.
How about we just casually talk and you just give a recount of your
article so that I can understand your points better?
Warmly
Edwin
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