The Collected Works of EDITH STEIN ON THE PROBLEM OF EMPATHY

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Edith Stein
teristic:s to be dependent on all kinds ol circumstances that could
be influenced by one another as u'ell as by the states and the
character of the living body. Finally, we found it incorporated
into the whole order of'physical ancl psychic reality. 'l'he indiviclual
with all his characteristics develops under the constant impressir certairt actions ltot cottfc>rnlirlg to arly tlrigirial per-
Empat@ as the Understanding of SpirituaL Persons
sonal attribute, so that it can be removed by other "influences."
An instance is authoritative moral education. If he who has been
educated in "moral principles" and who behaves according to
them looks "into himself." he will oerceive rvith satisfaction a
"virtuous" man. This is true until one day, in an action bursting
fbrth from deep inside of him, he experiences himself as someone
o{'an entirely different nature from the person he thought him-
self to be until then. One can only speak of a person developing
under the influence of the circumstances of lif-e or of a "signilicance
of the milieu for the character," as Dilthey also says,r32
inso[ar as the real environment is the object of'his value experiencir.rg
and determines which levels are exposed and which possible
actions become actual.
So the psycho-physical ernpirical person can be a more or less
complete realization of the spiritual one. It is conceivable for a
man's life to be a complete process of his personality's unfolding;
but it is also possible that psycho-physical development does not
permit a complete unfolding, and, in fact, in different n'ays. He
rvho dies in childhood or falls victim of a paralysis cannot unfold
"himself 'complctely. An empirical contingentiv. the rveakness ol
the organism, destroys the meaning of life (if we see the meaning
of'life to be this r-rnfolding of the person). On the other hand, a
stronger orp;anism continues to support life when its nreaning is
already fulfilled and the person has completely developed himself.
The incompleteness is here similar to the fragmentan'character
of a rvork of art of which a part is finished and only the raw
material for the rest is preserved. A def'ective unfolding is also
possible in a sound organism. He rvho never meets a person
worthy of love or hate can never experience the depths in which
lclve and hate are rooted. -I-o him who has never seen a work of
art nor gone beyond the rvalls of the city may perhaps fbrever be
closed the enjoyment of nature and art together u'ith his susceptibility
for this enjovment. Such an "incomplete" person is similar
to an unfinished sketch. Finally, it is also cor.rceivable {or the
personality not to unfold at all. He u'ho does not feel values
himself but acquires all feelings onlv through contagiort from
others, cannot erperience "himself." He can become, not a
personality, but at most a phantom ol'one.
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