The Collected Works of EDITH STEIN ON THE PROBLEM OF EMPATHY

Chapter IV
Empathy as the
Understanding of S Piritual
Persons
1. The Concept of the Spirit and of the Cultural Sciences
IGeisteswissenschaften] *
Q,o
f,,, *'e ha'e considered the individual "1" as a part of
\) t,ur.tr., the living body as a physical body among others, the
soul as founded on it, effects suffered and done and aligned in the
causal tlrder. all that is psychic as natural occurrence. consciousness
as reality. Alone, this interpretation cannot be fbllorved
through consistently. ln the constitution of the psycho-physical
indiviiual something already gleamed through in a number of
places that goes beiond these frames. Consciousness appeared
not only as i causally conditioned occurrence, but also as objectconstituting
at the same time. Thus it stepped out of the order of' < I 02 >
nature and faced it. consciousness as a correlate of' the object
world is not nature, but sPirit.
We do not want to venture into the new problem arising here
in its entirety, not to mention solving it. But neither can n'e avoid
it tf we \{ant to take a position on questions confronting us in the
history of the literature on empathy, questions concerning the
ur.rderstanding of foreign personalities. \,ve shall see later how
this is related.
*Pleasc'refer to the Note.r on the Ttantlation.ll. xs ab