Empathy and the Importance of Affectivity

This chapter argues that empathy is the basic emotional mechanism we use to understand others and that is always in place. The idea that we are guided by an objective attitude in interpersonal relationships is confuted and, on the opposite, it is illustrated how empathy makes visible the notion of import in the moral field and calls for a participatory attitude. The case of death penalty is examined to provide an explanation for the transformative power of empathy regarding our understanding of moral values.