The Collected Works of EDITH STEIN ON THE PROBLEM OF EMPATHY

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77> 68 Edith Stein participate in" the movement of knocked and knockinq ball. -fhe character of the ball otherwise prohibits the attribution of represented alive movement to it.eo On the other hand, rigid immobility conflicts with the phenom_ enon of the sensitive living body and the living orgarrism in general.er We cannor imagine a completely immobtle living being. That which is bound ro one place completely motionless ls "turned to stone." So far, spatial orientation cannot be com_ pletely separated from voluntary mobility. First of all, the varie_ ties of perception would become so limited if spontaneous movement ceased that the constitution of a spatial world (so far, the individual one) u'ould become dubious. This abolishes rhe pos_ of transference libility into the foreign living body and so of a fulfilling emparhy and the gaining of his orieniation. Thus voluntary movement is a part of the strucrure of the individual and is entirely nonsuspendable. (i) The Phenomena of LW Now let us consider a group of phenornena that participate in the structure of the i'dividual i. a special way: the y appeai i. the living body and also as psychic experiences. I u,ould iike to calthem the specific phenomena of life. They include gro\r,rh, devel_ opment and aging, health and sickness, vigor and sluggishness (general feelings, in our terms, or, as Scheler would say, ;feeling ourselves to be in our living body"). As he has protesred againsi empathy in general, Scheler has very parricularly protested against "explaining" phenomena of life by empathy.ez He wor.rld be e.tirely justified if empathy were a genetic process so rhat the elucidation of this tendency explained away what it was ro eluci_ date, as we mentioned earlier. Otherwise, I see no possibilitv of detaching the phenomena of life from the individuai's other ionstituents or of exhibiting anything but an empathic comprehension of them. In considering general feelings as our own experience, we have seen horv they "fiIl" the living body and rhe soul, horv they defi_ nitely color every spiritual act and every bodily evenr. horv they are then "co-seen" at the living bodyjust as fields of sensation are. 'I'hus, bl his walk, posture, and his every ntovement, \{e also Constitution of the Psycho-Physical IndiaiduaL 69 "see" "how he feels," his vigor, sluggishness, etc. We bring this c.o-intended foreign experieuce to fulfillment by carrying it out nith him empathically. Furthermore, we not only see such vigor and sluggishness in people and animals, but also in plants. Empathic fulfillment is also possible here. Of course, what I comprehend in this case is a considerable modification of my own life. A plant's general feeling does not appear as the coloring of its acts, lirr there is no basis at all to believe such acts are present. Neither do I have any right to ascribe an "awake" "I" to the plant, nor a reflective consciousness of its feelings of life. Even the otherwise larniliar constituents of animals are absent. lt is at least doubtful rvhether the plant has sensations,e3 and so our empathy is unjusti- {red if we believe we are inflicting pain on a tree by cutting it don'n with an ax. A plant is not the center of orientation of the spatial world either, nor voluntarily mobile, even though it is capable of alive movement in contrast with the inorganic. On the other hand, the abse nce of this constitution does not justify us in interpreting what is present in a new way and distinguishing the phenomena of life in plants from our own. I would not like to offer an opinion on whether we should look at the phenomena of life as essentially psychic or only as an essential basis for psychic existence fDaseins).sa That phenomena of life have an experiential character in psychic contexts is hardly contestable. No*' perhaps someone will think that I have selected general feeling as a very convenient example of the psychic nature of phenomena of life. Horvever, this psychic nature must also be demonstrable in other phenomena of life. Scheler has himself directed us to the "experience of life."e5 First calling "lived," isolated, finished experiences "psychic," as he does, seems to me like a definition not derived from the essence of the psychic. The psychic entity present (the primordial one, according to us) is rvhat is becoming, is experience. What became, rvas lived, and is {rnished sinks back into the stream of the past. We leave it behind us when we step into new experience; it loses its prirnordiality but remains the "same experience." First it is alive and then dead, but not first non-psychic and then psychic. (There is no positive ternr fbr "non-psychic.")Just as solidifying u'ax is first liquid and then hard but still wax, so the same material body remains. There is no
7() 7'dith Stein n o n - p sy c h i c i n d i v i d u a I .. p: 1 :' I :;.gi:i:: "-T il : 1?:'. :i n: reduction is.non-psych,. *h'.r,.Jf.om life. came') soul is ':]l:?i t:q';,;;l;t'e is a^ experience of'life as- scheler n"t-tTPll?:i"d,tl,'.1.'0,,'ihis is an experience and not an cension and one gf litl of discernible objective po-ttTtJ:1^"-t.'n" ":t"';'..'o.arion stages of - .;t itfe itself is gi'en to us as such development: t' ]l^t^::l lul','.,.,r., con nectin; h i gh poin ts' Furand not ^ u t"Tl:tit^t ot tl,',...'ooints, the development and not thermore, t1.1 u:..1r11n ro rl''*rurse, in order to perceive the only its results.is grvc:,,o "t.,:",;scious of ,, rhis development, result. we must hrsl "becorr'rau,a, we become conscious o[our i'e" make " :!:::'J::'o' :",;;,:-;. are weak' correspondinslv, strength waning yh::,Yt tt'i'.).,-. conscious of an inclination in "higher TI:"T: :1.--""-Y;';:;rong.. presenr, etc.) Nor is it a disappearing,:_lt^T:l"d ll*',,.".f"pn\.r,, *iih that of a plant; mere metap"1"l_':,:::,fff.",li., io,rtly aefined sense of compreit is a genuine"Tl:fl1_'.1,:n:,i,;.;; the same type. hending that somet hing bel,"'5'...- "feeling sick" has little to do Bodily ""uit'" u" tio aiit''ts1rt: wirh"p;in,';;rl":::.f ;l:;,T j'iT[':t"ffi|,'.11,[:i:,:1STJ bodily injyrl such a,s u brok," o',n. t toot ar rhis ,,srare,, in the can also *"],l:',1 :l :lll:l:l.i.''-y'"rii" .,',fu,r'i. projection. other and o::"9-T^:^glltli""", '.rl of single traits in the whole The attentiv-e t"tt "?::il:t l,"i,,ta.n from the fleering glance. disease picture which reml ' '.'."'l of the physician has over the lay This is *h";;:lr.n""'.1'r,-.*" pe r s o n, ^ :'*iqi ::ffi : lll,il lH lJ'.'"",I H $::l;' :;: lonser -"d: tTI^::l-p'1,''::;;f the cause in question' Thus this "clinical picture" ir an ,1'".' he thinks h; r;': .ur.ln,',,'u 5v yellow' sunken cheeks' or he 1 ,, , ^,- ,.., t,.,b..., - -",. ,.rts.rnd unnatural gleam of the eyes. Bu,,his.,'i.Tlriftffi :*;*::'1f, H#;i:h:31:?,f uy r, i, tur" n i il :; p;;;;'., ; ;1' 13l;3:l;:'ru:.:*ff il:Sf types oI illnesses on which 3] '"o'" phenomena::i ?I]::1ni.",)r,. the hrst introductory level, course' thtt:111'-1]i":ll' .,1orhe "t illco.dition, And the phvsinotproceeclrng'toProJecttorr :;;. with nhose welfare he is encian's relationship to his p;t:"'' Constitution of the Psycho-Physical Indiuidual 71 trusted, is no different from the gardener's relationship to his plants, whose thriving he oversees. He sees them full of fresh strength or ailing, recovering or dying. He elucidates their condition for himself empathically. ln terms of cause, he looks for the cause of the condition and finds ways to influence it. (h) Cousaliry"i in the Structure of the Indixidual Again, the possibilitv of such causal reflecti comprehelrd the "bad mood" empathically. Now, lve may not infer the causal sequence from the data obtained, but also exoerience it emnathicallv. For exarnple, we compreherrd interpsyihic causality similarly'lr,hen we observe the process o{'contagion of f'eelings in others while we ourselves are immune tr says, "You cal) hear nothing but sobbing and women u'eeping," rve perceive a suppressed sob in all parts of'the atrdi-
Page 1 and 2: The Collected Works of EDITH STEIN
Page 3 and 4: vi Edith Stein 4. -I'he Controversy
Page 5 and 6: l,,,n .n. undersrandi ,r,rlno.u.!r,
Page 7 and 8: xiv Edith Stein problem of empathy
Page 9 and 10: xvlll Edith Stein enological standp
Page 11 and 12: xxii Edith Stein Tr an s I ato r' s
Page 13 and 14: ON THE PROBLEM OF EMPATHY Foreword
Page 15 and 16: 4 Edith Stein What t an be leli if
Page 17 and 18: 8 Edith Stem primordially given, i'
Page 19 and 20: I2> 12 Edith Stein physical individ
Page 21 and 22: 16 Edith Stein Br.rt it seenls to m
Page 23 and 24: 20 Edith Stein The Essence of Acts
Page 25 and 26: 24 Edith Stein cheer me up.) Here,
Page 27 and 28: 28 Edith Stein experiences we only
Page 29 and 30: \JUl clearlt conscious motive for
Page 31 and 32: Chapter III The Constitution of the
Page 33 and 34: 40 Edith Stein soul. But, as we alr
Page 35 and 36: 44 Edith Stein usually comes up in
Page 37 and 38: 48 Edith Stein The psychic is in es
Page 39 and 40: 2 Edith Stein f unloading very well
Page 41 and 42: Edith Stein Constitution of the P s
Page 43 and 44: Edith Stein by empathic presentatio
Page 45 and 46: 62 Edith Stein as a physical bocly
Page 47: 66 Edith Stein (h) The Foreign Liui
Page 51 and 52: 74 Edith Stein C onstitution of the
Page 53 and 54: 78 Edith stein Constitution of the
Page 55 and 56: 82 Edith Stent Wehavealreadyportray
Page 57 and 58: Edith Stein C onstitution of the P
Page 59 and 60: Chapter IV Empathy as the Understan
Page 61 and 62: 105> Edith Stein absolutely as the
Page 63 and 64: 98 Edith Stein 3. The Constitution
Page 65 and 66: 02 Edith Stein Empathy as the Under
Page 67 and 68: 106 Edith Stein center or the "1" k
Page 69 and 70: I l0 Edith Stein teristic:s to be d
Page 71 and 72: ll4 Edith Stein Empatfu as the Unde
Page 73 and 74: l 18 Edith Stein taken so literally
Page 75 and 76: 1r, Edith Stein l{otes t23 phenomen
Page 77 and 78: 2b Edith Stein ?q na cit..p.57f. '
Page 79 and 80: 130 Edith Stein experiences is plai
Page 81 and 82: 134 phenomenological reduction xiv,

The Collected Works of EDITH STEIN ON THE PROBLEM OF EMPATHY

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