ABSTRACT
This chapter lays the theoretical foundations to understand the concept of empathy by looking at it from a variety of disciplinary angles, from psychology, to sociology, philosophy, cognitive studies and, very briefly, brain studies. The main questions addressed in this chapter correspond with some of the most widespread assumptions about empathy, i.e. beliefs that speakers – of English, at least – hold about empathy, affecting the way they talk about empathy and the way they typically enact it in their behaviour. These questions are: is empathy always positive? Is empathy an individual feature of a person’s character? Is empathy moral? Finally, and perhaps most crucially, is empathy what makes us human?
