ABSTRACT

Empathy has been described as an epistemic state – knowing what another individual is feeling, or as an affective state – feeling what another individual is feeling. There are less automatic, slightly more developed, versions of emotional empathy described in the literature. The concern was that empathy would somehow undermine theory of mind. Empathy that is not merely emotional empathy involves understanding the state of mind of the other, others' physical or social situation, and their differing goals. Empathy is important for understanding group norms. This is true of most social beings, like chimpanzees and dogs and rats. While the Kuni anecdote is an example of cognitive empathy coupled with a mistake in understanding, experimental work with rats suggests that perhaps they engage in more apt forms of empathy. Other animals may not have the exact kinds of empathy that humans are capable of, but sadly, humans continually fail to engage their empathy.