Introduction

The introduction describes the current skepticism and/or ignorance of historians about empathy despite the fact that, with the advent of cultural history, historians are using empathy to know the past more perhaps than ever before. It surveys the fields other than history where empathy is a focus of considerable contemporary attention (including, philosophy of mind and phenomenology, cognitive, developmental, and social psychology, and psychoanalysis). And it presents a succinct account of the aims of the book.