The Collected Works of EDITH STEIN ON THE PROBLEM OF EMPATHY

ON THE PROBLEM OF
EMPATHY
Foreword
he complete work, fiom which the following expositions
are taken, began with a purely historical treatment of'the
problems emerging one by one in the literature on empathy
belore me: aesthetic empathy, empathy as the cognitive source of
fbrergn [fremdes) experience, ethical empathy, etc. Though I
firund these problems mingled together, I separated them in my
presentation. Moreover, the epistemological, purely descriptive,
ancl genetic-psychological aspects of this identified problem were
undistinguished fiom one another. This mingling showed me
rvhv no one has fbund a satisfactory solution so far.
Above all, it seemed that I should extract the basic problem so
that all the others would become intelligible from its viewpoint.
And I wanted to submit this problem to a basic investigation. At
the same tinre, it seemed to me that this positir,'e work was a
requisite foundation for criticizing the prevailing conclusions. I
recognized this basic problem to be the question ofempathy as
the perceiving lErfahrungl of {breign subjects and their experience
lErLeben]. The fcrllowing expositior.rs will deal with this questr()l).
I am very well aware that my positive results represent only a
vety srlall contribution to what is to be realized. Irr additiorr,
special circumstances have prevented me from once more thor-
oughly revising the work before publication. Since I submitted it
to the faculty, I have, in my capacity as prir.ate assistanto my