ABSTRACT
The goal is to reflect on new perspectives for an applied sociology. This will be attempted through the reinterpretation of sociological paradigms, such as Weber's social acting through the concept of Verstehen, Schütz's Einfühlung, and Simmel's Erleben. In addition, these concepts will be related to neuroscience, researching their possible peculiarities. The chapter will thus feature a transdisciplinary dialogue between sociology and social neuroscience, starting both from the resonance that empathy has had in recent years with the discovery of mirror neurons and recent developments in neuroscience, such as virtual reality (VR) analyses of empathy levels. Today we can use data from other disciplines to support the thinking of the classics, without trying to impose one scientific direction over another, presenting data as one of the possible levels of research. Thus, although empathy has been observed from a biological point of view, it is part of a cultural universal, as it varies from person to person and differs according to cultural context. Therefore, an attempt will be made to propose applied social research methodologies on culture-related elements such as empathy. At the same time, an attempt will be made to clarify the support that neuroscience can give to social analysis.
