ADPL 1700 Philosophy of Empathy: What Does it Mean to Know Each Other?

This course explores philosophical approaches to the nature of empathy and its fundamental role in the human experience. A number of philosophers have taken up the question of empathy, and when we examine their work we see that asking what empathy is leads us to questions about what it means to be a human person, how we live in and encounter the world around us, and what it means to be in community with other persons. By encountering and analyzing theories on empathy in this course, students will work toward deepening their own understanding and developing their own ideas on empathy, community, and the nature of the human person.