On the Problem of Empathy

Introduction

Stein defended her dissertation under Husserl in Freiburg in August 1916 with the highest distinction, and it was printed in Halle the following year. Only parts II to IV appeared; the opening historical survey was left out and is lost. Stein describes empathy as an act of its own kind, in which another person’s experience is given to me as theirs, not mine. She distinguishes it from inner perception and from imagination, criticises the theory of Theodor Lipps, and shows that empathy is needed even to grasp my own body as one body among others, as well as for understanding persons and values. The work is read today as a founding text on intersubjectivity.

Connections

Builds on

• Ideas Pertaining to a Pure Phenomenology1913 · Edmund Husserl