A Critical Review Of A Philosophy Of Empathy

Download A Critical Review Of A Philosophy Of Empathy full books in PDF, epub, and Kindle. Read online A Critical Review Of A Philosophy Of Empathy ebook anywhere anytime directly on your device. Fast Download speed and no annoying ads. We cannot guarantee that every ebooks is available!

A Critical Review of a Philosophy of Empathy

Author : Lou Agosta
Publisher : Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN 13 : 9781727134414
Total Pages : 166 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (344 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis A Critical Review of a Philosophy of Empathy by : Lou Agosta

Download or read book A Critical Review of a Philosophy of Empathy written by Lou Agosta and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2019-03-30 with total page 166 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: You don't need a philosopher to tell you what empathy is; you need a philosopher to help you distinguish the hype and the over-intellectualization from a rigorous and critical empathy. In this volume, Lou Agosta engages thirty-three key articles from the great contributors to empathy studies such as William Ickes, Shaun Gallagher, and Dan Zahavi and the soon to be greats such as Eileen John, Adam Morton, and Matthew Ratcliffe. Agosta distinguishes the hype from the substance, the wheat from the chafe, and the breakdowns of empathy from a rigorous and critical empathy itself as the foundation of community. This volume engages with the key issues of the methods of accessing empathy (social psychology, phenomenology, neural science, critical practice), the history of concept empathy (not merely the word), the intersection of aesthetic empathy with cognitive and affective empathy, empathy and ethics, empathy and biology (mirror neurons, evolution), empathy in the arts (painting, film, music, literary fiction), and radical empathy (in cross cultural studies, major mental illness, and Eastern spiritual disciplines).This is not a survey but a critical engagement with key thinkers and their publications, designed to create a context for a conversation about how to make a difference in the individual and community by expanding empathy. The result is a rigorous and critical empathy that carries the struggle against over-intellectualism to the ivory tower of social psychologism. After debunking the prevailing scientism of empathy, this volume lays out a rigorous and critical empathy, leading the way forward with empathy studies that actually enable us to relate to one another. Every parent, teacher, health care worker, business person with customers, and professional with clients, knows what empathy is: Be open to the other person's feelings, take a walk in their shoes, give them back their own experience in one's own words such that they recognize it as theirs. So if this is the age of empathy, why is empathy in such short supply? Because we are mistaking the breakdowns of empathy - emotional contagion, conformity, projection, gossip, and getting lost in translation - for authentic empathic being with one another in community. Drive out cynicism, shame, resignation, bullying, and empathy naturally shows up. There is enough empathy to go around. Get some here.

Being Me Being You

Author : Samuel Fleischacker
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 022666189X
Total Pages : 231 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (266 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Being Me Being You by : Samuel Fleischacker

Download or read book Being Me Being You written by Samuel Fleischacker and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2019-10-23 with total page 231 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Modern notions of empathy often celebrate its ability to bridge divides, to unite humankind. But how do we square this with the popular view that we can never truly comprehend the experience of being someone else? In this book, Samuel Fleischacker delves into the work of Adam Smith to draw out an understanding of empathy that respects both personal difference and shared humanity. After laying out a range of meanings for the concept of empathy, Fleischacker proposes that what Smith called “sympathy” is very much what we today consider empathy. Smith’s version has remarkable value, as his empathy calls for entering into the perspective of another—a uniquely human feat that connects people while still allowing them to define their own distinctive standpoints. After discussing Smith’s views in relation to more recent empirical and philosophical studies, Fleischacker shows how turning back to Smith promises to enrich, clarify, and advance our current debates about the meaning and uses of empathy.

Empathy Lessons

Author : Lou Agosta
Publisher : Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN 13 : 9781981215850
Total Pages : 394 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (158 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Empathy Lessons by : Lou Agosta

Download or read book Empathy Lessons written by Lou Agosta and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2018-03-23 with total page 394 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Breezy yet brainy, Empathy Lessons provides 30 compelling and actionable lessons in restoring and expanding empathy in relationships and emotional well-being, at home and at work, in parenting and in business, at school and in the private consulting room, in the corporate jungle and in the empathy desert, in the public market and in the intimacy of the bedroom. Empathy is oxygen for the soul. So if you are short of breath due to life stress, get the expanded empathy delivered in this book. Just as the body needs oxygen to live physically, the soul needs empathy to live emotionally. Most people are naturally empathic, but the cynicism and denial needed to survive everyday life drives empathy away. Remove the obstacles to empathy and empathy naturally develops and grows. That is the training in a nutshell without all the details, guidance, and practice needed to succeed. Find out how to take your empathy to the next level in this book. The empathy lessons in this book include how- To perform a readiness assessment; establish a set up for success in cleaning up inauthenticities that block empathy so that empathy can expand and flourish; Empathy is not an "on-off" switch but a tuner (dial or dimmer) that expands or contracts in accessing the vicarious experience of the other person; Empathy works as a method of data gathering about the other person, providing a vicarious experience of the other person without being flooded by the experience; Introspection, vicarious experience, listening to one's own "voice over" and radical acceptance are the royal road to empathic receptivity; Empathic receptivity overcomes emotional contagion, creating a set up for clear communication of feelings and experiences; Empathic understanding overcomes conformity and enables shifting out of stuckness into contribution, transformation, and leadership, including satisfying and flourishing relationships; Empathic interpretation overcomes projection and is the folk definition of empathy, walking in another's shoes, adding "top down" empathy to "bottom up," empathic receptivity; Empathic responsiveness drives out anger and rage, acting as a soothing balm to suffering and emotional upset, deescalating conflict and aggression; Scientific, peer-reviewed, evidence-based research confirms that empathy reduces inflammation and stress; Relationships get "weaponized" in bullying and, coming from empathy, how to overcome bullying, reestablishing boundaries: recommendations to students, teachers, administrators on how to stop bullying (including cyber-bullying) and promote empathy; Disorders of empathy such as Asperger's and autism and (in a different context) the psychopathic person, the "Natural Empath" (caught between nature and nurture), and (fully buzzword compliant) mirror neurons, are related to empathy; "Corporate empathy" is not a contradiction in terms, "CEO" now means "chief empathy officer," and empathy is now the ultimate "capitalist tool"; Empathy is the "secret sauce" in sexual satisfaction within an authentic relationship, featuring the desire of desire, the "good parts," and intimate engagements that are sustainable. Empathy Lessons put you back in touch with your empathy. Empathy lessons-not merely the title of the book, the actual practices-provide applications to tough cases. The applications give back to you your power in overcoming life's social stresses and the power to expand well-being in the face of emotional upset, handling difficult relationships, meeting business challenges in the corporate jungle and empathy desert, overcoming bullies and bullying, and applying and practicing empathy in sex and romance. Not a conventional self-help book, but a writerly, intermittently humorous, romp through empathic fields, you get 30 actionable recommendations. Feeling like you are thrown "under the bus" again and it's getting crowded under there? Get the empathy you need to fight back and flourish in this book.

Intellectual Empathy

Author : Maureen Linker
Publisher : University of Michigan Press
ISBN 13 : 0472052624
Total Pages : 241 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (72 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Intellectual Empathy by : Maureen Linker

Download or read book Intellectual Empathy written by Maureen Linker and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 2014-06-01 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A guide for facilitating discussions about socially divisive issues for students, educators, business managers, and community leaders

Against Empathy

Author : Paul Bloom
Publisher : HarperCollins
ISBN 13 : 0062339354
Total Pages : 190 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (623 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Against Empathy by : Paul Bloom

Download or read book Against Empathy written by Paul Bloom and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2016-12-06 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New York Post Best Book of 2016 We often think of our capacity to experience the suffering of others as the ultimate source of goodness. Many of our wisest policy-makers, activists, scientists, and philosophers agree that the only problem with empathy is that we don’t have enough of it. Nothing could be farther from the truth, argues Yale researcher Paul Bloom. In AGAINST EMPATHY, Bloom reveals empathy to be one of the leading motivators of inequality and immorality in society. Far from helping us to improve the lives of others, empathy is a capricious and irrational emotion that appeals to our narrow prejudices. It muddles our judgment and, ironically, often leads to cruelty. We are at our best when we are smart enough not to rely on it, but to draw instead upon a more distanced compassion. Basing his argument on groundbreaking scientific findings, Bloom makes the case that some of the worst decisions made by individuals and nations—who to give money to, when to go to war, how to respond to climate change, and who to imprison—are too often motivated by honest, yet misplaced, emotions. With precision and wit, he demonstrates how empathy distorts our judgment in every aspect of our lives, from philanthropy and charity to the justice system; from medical care and education to parenting and marriage. Without empathy, Bloom insists, our decisions would be clearer, fairer, and—yes—ultimately more moral. Brilliantly argued, urgent and humane, AGAINST EMPATHY shows us that, when it comes to both major policy decisions and the choices we make in our everyday lives, limiting our impulse toward empathy is often the most compassionate choice we can make.

Self and Other

Author : Dan Zahavi
Publisher : OUP Oxford
ISBN 13 : 0191034789
Total Pages : 295 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (91 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Self and Other by : Dan Zahavi

Download or read book Self and Other written by Dan Zahavi and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2014-11-27 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Can you be a self on your own or only together with others? Is selfhood a built-in feature of experience or rather socially constructed? How do we at all come to understand others? Does empathy amount to and allow for a distinct experiential acquaintance with others, and if so, what does that tell us about the nature of selfhood and social cognition? Does a strong emphasis on the first-personal character of consciousness prohibit a satisfactory account of intersubjectivity or is the former rather a necessary requirement for the latter? Engaging with debates and findings in classical phenomenology, in philosophy of mind and in various empirical disciplines, Dan Zahavi's new book Self and Other offers answers to these questions. Discussing such diverse topics as self-consciousness, phenomenal externalism, mindless coping, mirror self-recognition, autism, theory of mind, embodied simulation, joint attention, shame, time-consciousness, embodiment, narrativity, self-disorders, expressivity and Buddhist no-self accounts, Zahavi argues that any theory of consciousness that wishes to take the subjective dimension of our experiential life serious must endorse a minimalist notion of self. At the same time, however, he also contends that an adequate account of the self has to recognize its multifaceted character, and that various complementary accounts must be integrated, if we are to do justice to its complexity. Thus, while arguing that the most fundamental level of selfhood is not socially constructed and not constitutively dependent upon others, Zahavi also acknowledges that there are dimensions of the self and types of self-experience that are other-mediated. The final part of the book exemplifies this claim through a close analysis of shame.

Empathy and History

Author : Tyson Retz
Publisher : Berghahn Books
ISBN 13 : 1800734387
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (7 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Empathy and History by : Tyson Retz

Download or read book Empathy and History written by Tyson Retz and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2022-06-10 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since empathy first emerged as an object of inquiry within British history education in the early 1970s, teachers, scholars and policymakers have debated the concept's role in the teaching and learning of history. Yet over the years this discussion has been confined to specialized education outlets, while empathy's broader significance for history and philosophy has too often gone unnoticed. Empathy and History is the first comprehensive account of empathy's place in the practice, teaching, and philosophy of history. Beginning with the concept's roots in nineteenth-century German historicism, the book follows its historical development, transformation, and deployment while revealing its relevance for practitioners today.

The Ethics of Care and Empathy

Author : Michael Slote
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1134002696
Total Pages : 278 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (34 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Ethics of Care and Empathy by : Michael Slote

Download or read book The Ethics of Care and Empathy written by Michael Slote and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2007-08-07 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Eminent moral philosopher Michael Slote argues that care ethics presents an important challenge to other ethical traditions and that a philosophically developed care ethics should, and can, offer its own comprehensive view of the whole of morality. Taking inspiration from British moral sentimentalism and drawing on recent psychological literature on empathy, he shows that the use of that notion allows care ethics to develop its own sentimentalist account of respect, autonomy, social justice, and deontology. Furthermore, he argues that care ethics gives a more persuasive account of these topics than theories offered by contemporary Kantian liberalism. The most philosophically rich and challenging exploration of the theory and practice of care to date, The Ethics of Care and Empathy also shows the manifold connections that can be drawn between philosophical issues and leading ideas in the fields of psychology, education, and women's studies.

Empathy

Author : Susan Lanzoni
Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 0300240929
Total Pages : 409 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (2 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Empathy by : Susan Lanzoni

Download or read book Empathy written by Susan Lanzoni and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2018-09-25 with total page 409 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A surprising, sweeping, and deeply researched history of empathy—from late-nineteenth-century German aesthetics to mirror neurons†‹ Empathy: A History tells the fascinating and largely unknown story of the first appearance of “empathy” in 1908 and tracks its shifting meanings over the following century. Despite empathy’s ubiquity today, few realize that it began as a translation of Einfühlung or “in-feeling” in German psychological aesthetics that described how spectators projected their own feelings and movements into objects of art and nature. Remarkably, this early conception of empathy transformed into its opposite over the ensuing decades. Social scientists and clinical psychologists refashioned empathy to require the deliberate putting aside of one’s feelings to more accurately understand another’s. By the end of World War II, interpersonal empathy entered the mainstream, appearing in advice columns, popular radio and TV, and later in public forums on civil rights. Even as neuroscientists continue to map the brain correlates of empathy, its many dimensions still elude strict scientific description. This meticulously researched book uncovers empathy’s historical layers, offering a rich portrait of the tension between the reach of one’s own imagination and the realities of others’ experiences.

On the Problem of Empathy

Author : Waltraut Stein
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 9401771278
Total Pages : 133 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (17 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis On the Problem of Empathy by : Waltraut Stein

Download or read book On the Problem of Empathy written by Waltraut Stein and published by Springer. This book was released on 2013-12-11 with total page 133 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

The Master and His Emissary

Author : Iain McGilchrist
Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 0300245920
Total Pages : 615 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (2 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Master and His Emissary by : Iain McGilchrist

Download or read book The Master and His Emissary written by Iain McGilchrist and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2019-03-26 with total page 615 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A new edition of the bestselling classic – published with a special introduction to mark its 10th anniversary This pioneering account sets out to understand the structure of the human brain – the place where mind meets matter. Until recently, the left hemisphere of our brain has been seen as the ‘rational’ side, the superior partner to the right. But is this distinction true? Drawing on a vast body of experimental research, Iain McGilchrist argues while our left brain makes for a wonderful servant, it is a very poor master. As he shows, it is the right side which is the more reliable and insightful. Without it, our world would be mechanistic – stripped of depth, colour and value.

The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Empathy

Author : Heidi Maibom
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1315281996
Total Pages : 841 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (152 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Empathy by : Heidi Maibom

Download or read book The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Empathy written by Heidi Maibom and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-02-03 with total page 841 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Empathy plays a central role in the history and contemporary study of ethics, interpersonal understanding, and the emotions, yet until now has been relatively underexplored. The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Empathy is an outstanding reference source to the key topics, problems and debates in this exciting field and is the first collection of its kind. Comprising over thirty chapters by a team of international contributors, the Handbook is divided into six parts: Core issues History of empathy Empathy and understanding Empathy and morals Empathy in art and aesthetics Empathy and individual differences. Within these sections central topics and problems are examined, including: empathy and imagination; neuroscience; David Hume and Adam Smith; understanding; evolution; altruism; moral responsibility; art, aesthetics, and literature; gender; empathy and related disciplines such as anthropology. Essential reading for students and researchers in philosophy, particularly ethics and philosophy of mind and psychology, the Handbook will also be of interest to those in related fields, such as anthropology and social psychology.

The Empathy Instinct

Author : Peter Bazalgette
Publisher : John Murray
ISBN 13 : 9781473637535
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (375 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Empathy Instinct by : Peter Bazalgette

Download or read book The Empathy Instinct written by Peter Bazalgette and published by John Murray. This book was released on 2019-10-22 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'If we hope to meet the moral test of our times, then I think we're going to have to talk more about the "empathy deficit". The ability to put ourselves in somebody else's shoes, to see the world through somebody else's eyes . . .' Barack Obama Empathy is the power of understanding others, imaginatively entering into their feelings. It is a fundamental human attribute, without which mutually co-operative societies cannot function. In a revolutionary development, we now know who has it, who lacks it and why. Via the MRI scanner we are mapping the human brain. This is a new frontier that reveals a host of beneficial ideas for childcare, teens challenged by the internet, the justice system, decent healthcare, tackling racism and resolving conflicts. In this wide-ranging and accessible book full of entertaining stories that are underlined by the latest scientific research, Peter Bazalgette also mounts a passionate defence of arts and popular culture as a means of bridging the empathy gap. As the world's population expands, consuming the planet's finite resources, as people haunted by poverty and war are on the move and as digital communications infinitely complicate our social interactions, we find our patience and our sympathy constantly challenged. Here is the antidote. Culminating in a passionate manifesto on empathy, The Empathy Instinct is what makes us human and what can make us better humans.

Understanding Phenomenology

Author : David R. Cerbone
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317493885
Total Pages : 201 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (174 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Understanding Phenomenology by : David R. Cerbone

Download or read book Understanding Phenomenology written by David R. Cerbone and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-12-05 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Understanding Phenomenology" provides a guide to one of the most important schools of thought in modern philosophy. The book traces phenomenology's historical development, beginning with its founder, Edmund Husserl and his "pure" or "transcendental" phenomenology, and continuing with the later, "existential" phenomenology of Martin Heidegger, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Maurice Merleau-Ponty. The book also assesses later, critical responses to phenomenology - from Derrida to Dennett - as well as the continued significance of phenomenology for philosophy today. Written for anyone coming to phenomenology for the first time, the book guides the reader through the often bewildering array of technical concepts and jargon associated with phenomenology and provides clear explanations and helpful examples to encourage and enhance engagement with the primary texts.

Empathy and the Historical Understanding of the Human Past

Author : Thomas A. Kohut
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 100004498X
Total Pages : 231 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Empathy and the Historical Understanding of the Human Past by : Thomas A. Kohut

Download or read book Empathy and the Historical Understanding of the Human Past written by Thomas A. Kohut and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-04-08 with total page 231 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Empathy and the Historical Understanding of the Human Past is a comprehensive consideration of the role of empathy in historical knowledge, informed by the literature on empathy in fields including history, psychoanalysis, psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, and sociology. The book seeks to raise the consciousness of historians about empathy, by introducing them to the history of the concept and to its status in fields outside of history. It also seeks to raise the self-consciousness of historians about their use of empathy to know and understand past people. Defining empathy as thinking and feeling, as imagining, one’s way inside the experience of others in order to know and understand them, Thomas A. Kohut distinguishes between the external and the empathic observational position, the position of the historical subject. He argues that historians need to be aware of their observational position, of when they are empathizing and when they are not. Indeed, Kohut advocates for the deliberate, self-reflective use of empathy as a legitimate and important mode of historical inquiry. Insightful, cogent, and interdisciplinary, the book will be essential for historians, students of history, and psychoanalysts, as well as those in other fields who seek to seek to know and understand human beings.

Red Team

Author : Micah Zenko
Publisher : Basic Books
ISBN 13 : 0465073956
Total Pages : 337 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (65 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Red Team by : Micah Zenko

Download or read book Red Team written by Micah Zenko and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2015-11-03 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Essential reading for business leaders and policymakers, an in-depth investigation of red teaming, the practice of inhabiting the perspective of potential competitors to gain a strategic advantage Red teaming. The concept is as old as the Devil's Advocate, the eleventh-century Vatican official charged with discrediting candidates for sainthood. Today, red teams are used widely in both the public and the private sector by those seeking to better understand the interests, intentions, and capabilities of institutional rivals. In the right circumstances, red teams can yield impressive results, giving businesses an edge over their competition, poking holes in vital intelligence estimates, and troubleshooting dangerous military missions long before boots are on the ground. But not all red teams are created equal; indeed, some cause more damage than they prevent. Drawing on a fascinating range of case studies, Red Team shows not only how to create and empower red teams, but also what to do with the information they produce. In this vivid, deeply-informed account, national security expert Micah Zenko provides the definitive book on this important strategy -- full of vital insights for decision makers of all kinds.

Psychology and Neurobiology of Empathy

Author : Douglas F. Watt
Publisher : Nova Science Publishers
ISBN 13 : 9781634844468
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (444 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Psychology and Neurobiology of Empathy by : Douglas F. Watt

Download or read book Psychology and Neurobiology of Empathy written by Douglas F. Watt and published by Nova Science Publishers. This book was released on 2016 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The scientific study of empathy has exploded in the past decade. Practically all of the relevant sciences from various neuroscientific, psychological and sociological perspectives are now vigorously participating in the emerging conversations about the nature of this essential, pro-social process. Empathy is also emerging as a critical topic in medical education and practice, in terms of its essential relevance for not only the patient physician relationship and bed-side practice, but also for diverse psychiatric problems and syndromes that demonstrate a fundamental disordering of empathy, particularly conduct disorder/sociopathy and autistic spectrum disorders. Consistent with these multidisciplinary trends and interests, this volume reflects contributions from many disciplines and summarises the impact of diverse empathy studies. It also discusses the perspectives of individuals participating in the scientific discussion and scholarship about this critical frontier topic. Contributions in the present volume range from detailed neuroscientific reviews of empathy concepts and processes, to a diversity of evolutionary and developmental perspectives looking at empathy in both phylogeny and ontogeny. Likewise, an examination of how helping and medical disciplines are impacted by such issues are included a wide ranging and comprehensive list of topics that are typically not covered elsewhere in a single volume. In summary, this book covers diverse but related approaches to understanding empathy from evolutionary, developmental, sociological and clinical viewpoints across the life cycle. Various contributors from around the world merge scientific and practical viewpoints in depth to provide readers a comprehensive picture of this emerging field, ranging from basic scientific knowledge to practical medical perspectives. This book should be a valuable resource to those interested in the diverse facets of empathy, from advanced students in psychology and related fields, to educators, to various medical and healthcare professionals. It may appeal to anyone interested not only in scientific studies of empathy, but also those curious about how a deeper understanding of empathy might inform and illuminate problems related to our daily human social interactions and their vicissitudes.