Empathy and Morality

Edited by Heidi L. Maibom

An interdisciplinary volume that critically examines the idea that empathy or sympathy is central to morality
Brings together original papers in philosophy, psychology, psychiatry, anthropology, and neuroscience
Distinctive in its focus on the moral import of empathy and sympathy
Includes an extensive survey of empathy and empathy-related emotions

Empathy and Morality

Edited by Heidi L. Maibom

Description

The relationship between empathy and morality has long been debated. Adam Smith and David Hume famously argued that our tendency to feel with our fellow human beings played a foundational role in morality. And while recent decades have seen a resurgence of interest in the idea that empathy or sympathy is central to moral judgment and motivation, the view is nonetheless increasingly attacked. Empathy is so morally limited, some argue, that we should focus our attention elsewhere. Yet the importance of our capacities to feel with and for others is hard to deny.

This collection is dedicated to the question of the importance of these capacities to morality. It brings together twelve original papers in philosophy, psychology, psychiatry, anthropology, and neuroscience to give a comprehensive overview of the issue and includes an extensive survey of empathy and empathy-related emotions. Some contributors argue that empathy is essential to core cases of moral judgments, others that empathic concern and moral considerations give rise to wholly distinct motives. Contributors look at such issues as the absence of empathy in psychopaths, the use of empathy training for rehabilitating violent offenders, and the presence of empathy in other primates. The volume is distinctive in focusing on the moral import of empathy and sympathy.

Empathy and Morality

Edited by Heidi L. Maibom

Contributors
1. Heidi L. Maibom: Introduction: Everything you ever wanted to know about empathy
2. Daniel Batson: Empathy-induced altruism and morality: No necessary connection
3. Tracy L. Spinrad & Nancy Eisenberg: Empathy and morality: A developmental psychology perspective
4. Martin L. Hoffman: Empathy, justice, and social change
5. Antti Kauppinen: Empathy, emotion regulation, and moral judgment
6. George Graham & K. Richard Garrett: At the empathetic center of our moral lives
7. Abigail A. Marsh: Empathic and moral deficits in psychopathy.
8. Giuseppe Ugazio, Jasminka Majdandzic, and Claus Lamm: Are empathy and morality linked? Evidence from moral psychology, social and decision neuroscience, and philosophy
9. R. Peter Hobson & Jessica Hobson: On empathy: A perspective from developmental psychopathology.
10. Kristin Andrews & Lori Gruen: Empathy in other apes.
11. Tony Ward & Russil Durrant: Psychological altruism, empathy, and offender rehabilitation.
12. Douglas Hollan: Empathy and morality in ethnographic perspective

Empathy and Morality

Edited by Heidi L. Maibom

Author Information

Heidi L. Maibom is professor of philosophy at University of Cincinnati. She studied at University of Copenhagen, University of Bologna, and University College London, and has held fellowships at Cambridge and Princeton Universities. She works on folk psychology, empathy, responsibility, and psychopathy.

Contributors:

Kristin Andrews is Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy at York University.

Daniel Batson is Professor Emeritus in Department of Psychology at University of Kansas.

Russil Durrant is Senior Lecturer in the School of Social and Cultural Studies at Victoria University of Wellington.

Nancy Eisenberg is Regents' Professor in the Department of Psychology at Arizona State University.

K. Richard Garrett is Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Bentley University.

George Graham is Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Georgia State University.

Lori Gruen is Professor of Philosophy, Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and Environmental Studies at Wesleyan University.

Jessica Hobson is Senior Research Fellow in the Behavioural and Brain Sciences Unit of Institute of Child Health at University College London.

R. Peter Hobson is Professor of Developmental Psychopathology in the Behavioural and Brain Sciences Unit of the Institute of Child Health at University College London and the Tavistock Clinic.

Martin L. Hoffman is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Psychology at New York University.

Douglas Hollan is Professor of Anthropology and Luckman Distinguished Teacher at UCLA, co-director of the FPR-UCLA Culture, Brain, and Development Program in Mental Health, and an instructor at the New Center for Psychoanalysis in Los Angeles.

Antti Kauppinen is Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Trinity College Dublin.

Claus Lamm is Professor and Head of the Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Unit of the Department of Basic Psychological Research and Research Methods at the University of Vienna.

Heidi Maibom is Professor in the Department of Philosophy at University of Cincinnati.

Jasminka Majdandzic is Postdoctoral Researcher in the Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Unit of the Department of Basic Psychological Research and Research Methods at the University of Vienna.

Abigail A. Marsh is Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Georgetown University.

Tracy L. Spinrad is Associate Professor in the School of Social and Family Dynamics at Arizona State University.

Giuseppe Ugazio is Postdoctoral Researcher in the Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Unit of the Department of Basic Psychological Research and Research Methods at the University of Vienna.

Tony Ward is Professor in the School of Psychology at Victoria University of Wellington.

Empathy and Morality

Edited by Heidi L. Maibom

Reviews and Awards

"Heidi Maibom's anthology is a very welcome and timely publicationELthe anthology provides an excellent and comprehensive orientation about a topic that is at the center of the contemporary discussion about moral psychology and philosophy. The anthology should become something of a first address to "visit" for anybody wanting to familiarize themselves quickly with the state of the art research on and stances towards a rather complex topic." --Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews Online

"This collection of 12 essays features contributions from philosophers, psychologists, cognitive scientists, an ethnologist, and an ethologist. It offers cutting-edge rethinking of the complex phenomenon of empathy, understood to be based on neurobiological processes and embodied forms of attunement and intersubjectivity... Highly Recommended." --Choice

"[T]he discussions in Empathy and Morality are rich and diverse. The reader will be left with a clearer account of the complicated relationship between empathy and morality." --Metapsychology

"For those embarking on a first consideration of social justice, virtue ethics, moral education, or policy studies, this is a tome worth having on your shelf; and for present-day enthusiasts of empathy-based ethics, it provides many occasions for sober second thought." --Philosophy Now