The Notion “Empathy” in the Context of Aristotle’s Ethical Ideas

Any historical text remains alive and demanded in culture, if its actualization and the correlation with the realities and concepts of modernity take place. Aristotle’s philosophical heritage is not an exception here. The aim of this report is to compare the concept of empathy, which is important for the modern humanities and communication, with key categories of Stagirite’s ethics.

The empathy is understood as a special state of consciousness, a kind of learning process, consisting in compassion emotional and wider spiritual mood of the other person. This phenomenon concerns philosophy from the point of view of clarifying complex and demanding acts of consciousness and human behavior, testing its fundamental statements. For a philosopher to put himself in the place of another has long been one of the usual and acceptable way of reasoning. Such method, a kind of thought experiment or hypothesis in order to reconstruct the course of thinking of another philosopher, Aristotle applied.

Empathy as a kind of subject-subject relationship inevitably comes into contact with the moral relations, because it manifests the interest of one person to another, often unselfish, or on the basis of mutual benefit. From this point of view, it is tempting to use the Aristotelian interpretation of virtue as the middle in the area of feelings and actions. In this position reinterpreted and synthesized the antique dialectic concept of measure and Protagoras maxim about the man as the measure of all things.

Empathy can be logically considered as a kind of virtu, and it is worth thinking about how to apply to it the concept of action in the above sense. If you use some kind of conditional scale of human sensitivity, empathy deserves a central place in it. The other two members of the Aristotelian triad, i.e., the extremes, opposing middle, should be determined. At the beginning of the scale is a complete lack of empathy to another person, the " zero sympathy". Not applicable to thinking beings literally, this phrase is still appropriate in the conditional sense. Searches of relevant terms bothered Aristotle, and he found it possible to use such rather coarse expressions as " insensitivity", " stupidity", and " beast".

More problematic is the characteristic of the other opposite member of the triad. It would be logical to look for the hypothetical extreme in this direction, i.e. the upper limit of sensitivity to the " other." In Stagirit’s text we do not find such ideas. However, continuing the Aristotelian logic of constructing ethical categories through the triad " deficiency - Golden mean – excess" it’s possible to incorporate empathy into a number of virtues with the modern experience of the consideration of this phenomenon. Then the excess of empathy will be characterized by the phenomenon of identification with another person known to modern psychology, which is fraught with the loss of self-identity. And the deficiency of empathy can be presented through the phenomenon of narcissism (formulated in the ancient myth) as a pathological self-love, accompanied by emotional impermeability to another.

It can be assumed that Aristotle not discussed the phenomenon of identification because the antique people by and large did not feel themselves as individualities. There wasn’t a problem for them to find their own identity, since they were ontologically rooted in society through a variety of social structures and naturally identified themselves with the polis community.

It should also be noted that in the modern psychoanalysis the deficiency of empathic responsiveness in narcissism was assessed as a result of the absence of the self-identity feeling. In this case identification is possible to consider as an objective deficiency of self-identity together with the subjective sensation of its presence. Thus, empathy is associated with the problem of self-identity and can be evaluated as a harmony of objective and subjective self-identity. This thought leads us to the problems of communication, so important in modern philosophy. In the context of ethical concepts and Stagirit’s ideas it guides us to the categories of happiness (which can be considered as a consequence of the ability of empathy), friendliness. The study of empathy in connection with these ethical categories allows us to gain a better understanding of its capabilities and target orientation.

Like other ancient thinkers, Aristotle gave principal importance to the category of " happiness", paying attention to its relationship with other ethical notions. The interpretation of happiness as the highest good, which should subjugate other goods, seems to be promising, although it isn’t specific enough. The reduction of happiness to pleasure, even the highest, unjustifiably impoverishes its content. We should, however, take into account the importance of further amendments to this definition. Especially valuable is indication of the wrong solution to the question of happiness only in relation to an individual outside his social ties.

Aristotle said that the concept of self-sufficiency as an attribute of the good applies not to one man, leading a lonely life, but to a person with parents and children, his wife and in general all the loved ones and fellow citizens, since man is a social being by nature. Thus, happiness cannot be attained alone, but together with loved ones. The fullness of virtue and life, as the characteristics of happiness, suggest sympathy of loved ones (empathy). At the same time the individual consciousness flows into the collective one and deeper understanding of the value of communication takes place. Some coherence of people’s thoughts and actions, their sympathy for each other arise from the more general problem solved by the Stagirit – to prove the indissoluble unity of ethics and politics. In this regard, it is justified the detailed development of the concept of friendliness to which the eighth and ninth books of " Nicomachean Ethics" are dedicated. Important for any society, these issues were especially relevant to ancient Greece, seeking the best forms of social organization. It should be taken in account that antagonisms and various barriers between people (ethnic, class, etc.) were typical for antique society and hampered the normal communication. The low level of social consciousness and a deficit of scientific ideas led to illusions and unrealistic simplifications. Clearly the Aristotle's desire to rely on fundamental natural-science views in this question, but they were also underdeveloped.

In describing the different types of friendship Stagirite pays attention to the importance of correct and accurate representations of each other and the nature of the relationship between friends. Especially important in this sense is a perfect friendship, combining mutual benefit and sincere interest to each other. Clearly we can see empathy here and it reinforces mutual affection. But the author of the " Nicomachean Ethics" simplifies the task, paying attention to the conditions of unity only within the privileged social groups. In addition, he relies on the need of special social institutes, more integrating the existing community (meetings, associations, unions). Relationships between individuals are discussed mostly as cases with minimal social distance. But here there are also complications, and Aristotle does not ignore the conflicts in such communication. He sometimes admits the possibility of friendship (not just intercourse) with a slave, notices the solidarity between foreigners, not being able or not trying to explain its nature. His application of the concept of friendliness to the professional relationship, in particular, to the medical profession, is interesting too. Aristotle emphasizes that doctors knowledge should be based on the ability to predict not only the course of the patient's thoughts, but the movement of his senses.

Empathy, therefore, has an important role in the moral consciousness, the art of philosophizing, professional and existential communication. Using this concept we can better understand the nature of philosophizing, make more effective the application of philosophy's own thinking techniques, clarify complex and demanding acts of consciousness and human behavior. It is promising for the construction of the system of economic categories. Aristotle only outlined the contours of the concept of empathy in solving ethical problems. However, for integration of this concept in the system of ethical categories, as well as for modern ethics in general is productive the Aristotle's methodological setting on understanding of virtue as the golden mean between the extremes.

[7] Edward Skidelsky

University of Exeter, Great Britain