Issues with Affective Empathy and Its Role in Motivation and Moral Judgments

Eugenia Stefanello

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Chapter 5 Issues with Affective Empathy and Its Role in Motivation and Moral Judgments

In: Empathy and Deliberation: The Case for a Phenomenological Approach

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Eugenia Stefanello

Eugenia Stefanello
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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 97–118

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004745360_007

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Abstract

This chapter challenges the assumption that empathy, especially affective empathy, represents the optimal source of moral motivation and moral judgments. The aim is to argue that empathy – both cognitive and affective – engages in a selection process regarding whom to help and whose actions merit approval or disapproval. First, the chapter enumerates empathy’s affective biases in recognizing, understanding, and sharing others’ emotions, demonstrating that this selective and partial nature directly impacts the morality of the motivational grounds that empathy provides for other-directed practical deliberation. Consequently, empathy may motivate immoral actions. Second, the analysis challenges the claim that affective empathy constitutes the best available basis for approval and disapproval, and ultimately for moral judgments, because sole reliance on empathy risks misjudging the moral status of others’ actions.

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Empathy and Deliberation: The Case for a Phenomenological Approach

Series: Value Inquiry Book Series, Volume: 421 and Studies in Existentialism, Hermeneutics, and Phenomenology, Volume: 421

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004745360

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 16 Apr 2026

Subjects
- Philosophy
  - Epistemology & Metaphysics
  - Ethics & Moral Philosophy

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Chapter 5 Issues with Affective Empathy and Its Role in Motivation and Moral Judgments

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Empathy and Deliberation: The Case for a Phenomenological Approach

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