Dalla “vivenza” dell’empatia fenomenologica alla responsabilità attraverso il pensiero di Edmund Husserl ed Edith Stein = From the “Lived Experience” of Phenomenological Empathy to Responsibility: Through the Thought of Edmund Husserl and Edith Stein

Abstract

Having clarified what is meant, in this context, by “empathy”, by choosing to trace its conceptual “history” through the two key figures of Edmund Husserl and his student Edith Stein, this paper illustrates the evolution of perspectives on the phenomenon through the contributions of the two authors. This is done in an attempt to answer the question of whether Einfühlung, in its emotional-affective essence, can become the fulcrum and driving force of humanity, capable of guiding it towards just and shared values. This, thank to the assiduousness of its practice – and not through a modification of its nature, nor by the mean of its intergration with a different kind of empathy (e.g., cognitive empathy).