Smith At 300: Smith On Empathy And Sympathy

Smith at 300: Contribution by Philippe Fontaine "For the twenty-first-century student of sympathy, the excerpt above is an obvious reminder that the history of ideas is not just a history of words. Empathy does not appear in that passage, nor in TMS in general, which has often caused confusion among commentators, and yet the “imaginary change of situations” with another looms large in Smith’s analysis of sympathy. In an era where “lovers” and “haters” command center stage, whose alleged concern for others can reasonably be regarded as selfish, it may be useful to be reminded of the distinction between sympathy and empathy. Outside the discipline of psychology, indeed, “empathizers” attract less attention than “sympathizers” and their nameless opposites."