Empathy and the Aesthetic Mind: Perspectives on Fiction and Beyond

Art is a constant point of reference for the exploration of the different manifestations of empathy and of its cognitive, affective and moral dimensions. Bringing together 15 essays from a team of established and rising philosophers, this volume sheds light on how both representational and non-representational forms of art allow empathic engagement. It examines the significance of such engagement for cognition, our emotive life and our moral stance.

Opening with a historical reconstruction of the origins of empathy, or ’Einfühlung’, in the German-speaking world from the late 19th to the early 20th century, the collection highlights the relevance of those early insights for current debates. Structured into four parts, chapters explore our emphatic engagement with fictional characters, with the inanimate in art forms such as film, music and architecture, with the cognitive value of empathy with fiction, and finally our emphatic response to fiction in relation to our moral attitudes. The contributors reflect on these specific themes and bring into sharp focus our emphatic engagement with works of art from historical, systematic and interdisciplinary perspectives.

Katerina Bantinaki is Assistant Professor of Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art at the University of Crete, Greece.

Efi Kyprianidou is Assistant Professor in Aesthetics, Philosophy and Theory of Arts at Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus.

Fotini Vassiliou is Assistant Professor in Phenomenology at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece.