Issues with Empathy and Its Role in the Broader Context and in Our Relationships

Eugenia Stefanello

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Chapter 6 Issues with Empathy and Its Role in the Broader Context and in Our Relationships

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:: 119–136

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004745360_008

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Abstract

This chapter discusses the problematic consequences of characterizing empathy as independent of the broader sociocultural, historical, political, and economic context in which it occurs, as the standard definition does. It argues that the character of individuals involved in empathic relationships, along with contextual factors, profoundly impacts these relationships, their epistemic and moral outcomes, and the other-directed deliberative processes in which empathy is engaged. Drawing on hermeneutical reflections and anthropological studies, the analysis demonstrates that context directly influences whether empathy leads to problematic outcomes and reveals the nature of such consequences. Moreover, following the vice epistemology debate, the chapter focuses particularly on asymmetrical relationships, arguing that empathy between privileged and non-privileged individuals can result in epistemic injustice, and that contextual examination of these dynamics can illuminate such behaviors and their morally troubling implications.

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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 6 Issues with Empathy and Its Role in the Broader Context and in Our Relationships

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Empathy and Deliberation: The Case for a Phenomenological Approach

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