Empathy (The Science Of, A Model For)

An examination of climate inaction under this paradigm

Though our brother is upon the rack . . . by the imagination we place ourselves in his situation, we conceive ourselves enduring all the same torments, we enter as it were into his body, and become in some measure, the same person with him, and thence form some idea of his sensations, and even feel something which, though weaker in degree, is not altogether unlike them. — Adam Smith, p. 9 [1]

Adam Smith in 1759 was encircling a proto-theory of ‘empathy,’ though the word is only a bit older than a century. Before we discuss the budding science of empathy, we must define the term in some quasi-determinate way. Empathy is often thought of as being tantamount to altruism. However, this only touches upon its meaning. To be clear, there are numerous definitions of the empathy construct (i.e., empathy as emotional contagion, as the projection of one’s own thoughts and feelings, and as a fundamental aspect of social development). But most clinical and counseling psychologists have identified a core set of three…