“Youcanonly understandpeople if you feelthemin yourself”. —John Steinbeck, East of Eden “Yet,taught by time, my heart haslearnedto glow at other’sgood,and melt at another’swoe”. —Homer
“When a good man is hurt all who would be called good must suffer with him” —Euripides “Seeingwiththe eyes of another,listeningwith the ears of another, and feelingwith the heart of another”. —Alfred Adler
“I call him religious who understands the sufferings of others”. —Mahatma Gandhi
“I do not ask the wounded person how he feels, I myself become the wounded person.” —Walt Whitman
“As we have no immediate experience of what other men feel, we can form no idea of the manner in which they are affected, but by conceiving what we ourselves should feel in the like situation.”—Adam Smith
“Self-absorption in all its forms kills empathy, let alone compassion. When we focus on ourselves, our world contracts as our problemsand preoccupations loom large. But when we focus on others, our world expands. Our own problemsdrift to the periphery of the mind and so seem smaller, and we increase our capacity for connection - or compassionate action.”
—Daniel Goleman, Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships
“If there isanyone secret of success, it liesintheability to get the otherperson’spoint of viewandseethingsfromhis angle as well as your own.” —Henry Ford
“Ahumanbeingis a part of the wholecalled by usuniverse, a part limited in time andspace. He experienceshimself, his thoughts andfeeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.” —Albert Einstein
“Humankind seems to have an enormous capacity for savagery, for brutality, for lack of empathy, for lack of compassion.” —Annie Lennox
Empathy is a quality which lies at the heart of our concern for others. It makes us feel keenly the sufferings,pain andtorments of our fellow humanbeings.Empathy is fellowfeeling andcompassion and enables us to identify ourselves with the feelings, emotions and sentiments of others. There is a difference between sympathy and empathy. In simple terms, sympathy means that we feel for someone whereas empathy means that we feel with someone. Empathy implies emotional sharing with others. It is the first stage whenever anyone is moved to help others in distress.
A school of ethics, moral sentimentalism, considers that morality has its source in our emotions and desires ratherinourreason. Moral sentimentalism provides a plausible explanation of common aspects of morality. Empathy, a term is often used for a kind of concern for another, is considered as an important virtue. An empathetic point of view is achieved by setting aside our own interests, current disposition, and relation to the agent and sympathizing with the effects of a person’s actions on those around him. For Adam Smith, the key mechanism of empathy is imaginatively placing oneself in another’s position, or what would now be called simulation, rather than mere emotional contagion, association, or inference. Some other thinkers consider that empathy also has a rational element. As fairness, justice and interdependence are involved in empathy, it may be considered rational in nature and its application understood as an activity based on sound judgment.
As Annie Lennox observes, when the quality of empathy atrophies in men – driven by ideological or religious fanaticism or by xenophobia – they turn against one other with great ferocity. This explains the terrible massacres perpetrated in the twentieth century during wars and revolutions. Recognizing that empathy lies at the root humane virtues, philosophers, religious preachers and great writers have always urged men to cultivate this virtue.
Theprocessthroughwhichempathyoperates is oftendiscussedin Ethics,andthiscan be shown in a few simple steps.
X notices that Y is injured and that he is in pain. A mental state similar to that of Y arises in X. He experiences the idea of pain, of Y.
This feeling arises from a kind of association (according to Hume) or due to psychological simulation of Y’s pain in X’s mind.
This feeling of empathy creates a motivational drive in X to rush to Y’s help.
Some people may be cold, indifferent or unresponsive to the suffering of others. As it happens in the case of accidents, people just refuse to help the victims or just drive away leaving the victims to their fate. Their empathy is very weak and they fail to summon the necessary energy to assist those in trouble.
Empathy is considered an innate aspect of human nature. Like other aspects of human mental makeup, it might have arisen in the process of human biological evolution. As such, it has helped humanbeings to adapt to environment and to surviveandreproduce. Of course, it also has a cultural component.
John Steinbeck mentions that to understand others we have to feel as they feel. Homer, the ancient Greek author of the epics Iliad and Odyssey, says that experiences teach us to share in the joys and sorrows of others. According to Euripides, virtuous people should experience the sorrows of other virtuous people. The observation of Alfred Adler (who along with Freud and Carl Jung pioneered early studies of psychoanalysis) is a pithy definition of empathy. Adam Smith’s observation is a simple account of the mechanism of empathy. As mentioned, it consists in our placing ourselves in the shoes of others and imagining their plight.
Empathy comes into play in many situations – in personal life, social life, and professional life and in appreciating literary works like novels, dramas and poems. Empathy helps in breaking down the barriers which egoistic tendencies erect around men.Ordinarily, human beings are self-centred and self-absorbed – often preoccupied with domestic problems, petty rivalries and jealousies and frustrations over career and money. It is necessary to silence and calm the restless ego to strengthen the quality of empathy.
This can be done in many ways. One should listen carefully and attentively to others, and resist the temptation to switch off. While reading about literature and humanities, one should stay focused without getting distracted. One should take genuine interest in the problems which friends and relatives face, and extend a helping hand without getting intrusive. One should extend one’s impersonal interests, and minimize self-preoccupation.
As Daniel Goleman points out, when people obsess over their problems, they seem huge and burdensome. They crowd out other matters from one’s mind and create psychological stress. One’s viewpoint becomes subjective and unbalanced. The best antidote to this problem is to widen the range of our interests, and to keenlypursuethem. Albert Einstein suggeststhat ourinterests should not be limited to ourselves and our immediate family. Our interests should extend to the whole living world and to the beauty of nature. Einstein was particularly impressed by the mathematical simplicity and elegance of the natural laws of nature. In his words, “subtle is the Lord (God)”. But Einstein does not believe in a personal God.
In the context of business, empathy is a chief ingredient of emotional intelligence which managers need. In modern day work environment, skilled teams work together. In this environment, empathetic understanding is necessary for effective work performance. In administrative situations, all relevant viewpoints have to be elicited and suitably accommodated. And administrators require this quality.