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Identification and Economic Behavior Sympathy and Empathy in Historical Perspective

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  • Fontaine, Philippe

Abstract

In modern economics, the use of sympathy and empathy shows significant ambiguity. Sympathy has been used in two different senses. First, it refers to cases where the concern for others directly affects an individual's own welfare (Sen, 1977). Second, the term has served the purposes of welfare economics, where it is associated with interpersonal comparisons of the extended sympathy type, that is, comparisons between one's own situation in a social state and someone else's in a different social state (Arrow, 1963 [1951]). On the other hand, empathy has been used interchangeably with sympathy either to render the idea of interdependent utility functions (Leibenstein, 1976), or to convey the imaginative process of imagining oneself in someone else's place (Harsanyi, 1977).

Suggested Citation

  • Fontaine, Philippe, 1997. "Identification and Economic Behavior Sympathy and Empathy in Historical Perspective," Economics and Philosophy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 13(2), pages 261-280, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:ecnphi:v:13:y:1997:i:02:p:261-280_00
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    Cited by:

    1. Mongin, Philippe, 2001. "The impartial observer theorem of social ethics," Economics and Philosophy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 17(2), pages 147-179, October.
    2. Khalil, Elias, 2007. "The Mirror-Neuron Paradox: How Far is Sympathy from Compassion, Indulgence, and Adulation?," MPRA Paper 3509, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Michel Zouboulakis, 2010. "Trustworthiness as a Moral Determinant of Economic Activity: Lessons from the Classics," Forum for Social Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(3), pages 209-221, January.
    4. Sandra J. Peart & David M. Levy, 2005. "From Cardinal to Ordinal Utility Theory," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 64(3), pages 851-879, July.
    5. Levy, David M., 2004. "Machine Dreams: Economics Becomes a Cyborg Science: Philip Mirowski, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2002," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 53(3), pages 423-431, March.
    6. Laurie Bréban & Muriel Gilardone, 2019. "A missing touch of Adam Smith in Amartya Sen’s account of Public Reasoning: the Man Within for the Man Without," Economics Working Paper from Condorcet Center for political Economy at CREM-CNRS 2019-01-ccr, Condorcet Center for political Economy.
    7. Sandra J. Peart & David M. Levy, 2005. "A discipline without sympathy: the happiness of the majority and its demise," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 38(3), pages 937-954, August.
    8. Fontaine, Philippe, 2023. "Smith At 300: Smith On Empathy And Sympathy," SocArXiv s3be2, Center for Open Science.
    9. Philippe Fontaine, 2000. "Making use of the past: theorists and historians on the economics of altruism," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(3), pages 407-422.
    10. Laurie Bréban & Jean Dellemotte, 2016. "From one form of sympathy to another: Sophie de Grouchy’s translation of and commentary on Adam Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments," Working Papers hal-01435828, HAL.
    11. Michele Bee & Luiz Felipe Bruzzi Curi, 2024. "Agreement is money: Beyond the chartalist reading of Adam Smith," Textos para Discussão Cedeplar-UFMG 666, Cedeplar, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais.
    12. Philippe Bazard, 2000. "Sidgwick and Edgeworth on indeterminacy in the labour market," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(3), pages 350-362.
    13. Laurie Bréban, 2017. "An Investigation into the Smithian System of Sympathy: from Cognition to Emotion," Working Papers hal-01467340, HAL.
    14. Antonino Callea & Dalila De Rosa & Giovanni Ferri & Francesca Lipari & Marco Costanzi, 2022. "Can Emotional Intelligence promote Individual Wellbeing and protect from perceptions' traps?," CERBE Working Papers wpC39, CERBE Center for Relationship Banking and Economics.
    15. Laurie Bréban, 2018. "An Investigation into the Smithian System of Sympathy: from Cognition to Emotion," Post-Print hal-03904227, HAL.

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