How Does it Feel? - Interpersonal Understanding and affective Empathy

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Interpersonal Understanding and Affective Empathy SummaryAccording to a recent study by YouGov, a majority of Britons areworried that they and their compatriots are increasingly incapable ofunderstanding each other and of emotionally “putting themselves inothers’ shoes.” These inabilities seem intimately tied up with thedisturbing sectar-ianism of political culture afflicting Westerndemocracies. But what precisely is it to understand another personand what is it that blocks the ability to do so? The project "How Doesit Feel? Interpersonal Understanding and Affective Empathy" aims tomake a crucial contribution to a theory of interpersonal understandingby providing philosophical accounts of hitherto barely discusseddimensions of the phenomenon: (1) grasping what it is like or how itfeels for another to be in some situation: phenomenal understanding;(2) endorsing or accepting another’s feelings, motivation or action;and (3) achieving these as a result of emo-tionally or affectivelyempathising with the other, where affective empathy is conceived aseither fulfilling a cognitive role, thus contributing to phenomenalunderstanding, or feeding into the eval-uative or quasi-evaluativephenomenon of endorsement. Three subprojects will tackle each ofthese three dimensions. In order to do so, they will bring together anddevelop a thus far unique combination of insights from epistemology(on the nature of understanding and its relationship to knowledge),from philosophy of mind (on how people identify and grasp subjectiveexperiences), from metaethics (on endorsement or appreciation ofanother’s psychological state) and from philosophical psychology (onthe types and mechanisms of successful and failed empathy). All inall, the project promises to develop key components of a theory ofinterpersonal under-standing, a phenomenon whose resources andvalue appear dangerously underappreciated in our factious politicaltimes.