Psychology Dictionary of ArgumentsHome
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| Sympathy: Sympathy refers to the capacity to understand and share the feelings or perspectives of others. It involves emotional resonance and is a foundational concept in moral philosophy and ethics. One of the most influential philosophers to write about sympathy was David Hume, who argued that sympathy is the basis of all moral judgments. See also Understanding, Intersubjectivity, Emotions, Communiction, Judgments, Ethics, Morals, Perspective, D. Hume._____________Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments. | |||
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Wilhelm Dilthey on Sympathy - Dictionary of Arguments
Gadamer I 236 Sympathy/Understanding/Dilthey/Gadamer: For Dilthey, the consciousness of finiteness did not mean an endlessness of consciousness and no limitation. Rather, it testifies to life's ability to rise above all barriers in energy and activity. For this Dilthey follows the old teaching, which derives the possibility of understanding from the sameness of human nature. The barriers set to the universality of understanding by the historical finiteness of our being are thus only of a subjective nature to him. Certainly, he can nevertheless recognize something positive in them that will be fruitful for knowledge; thus he assures that only sympathy makes real understanding possible.(1) GadamerVsDilthey: But it is questionable whether this is of fundamental importance. First of all one thing should be noted: he sees sympathy alone as a condition of recognition. Sympathy/Droysen: One can ask with Droysen whether sympathy (which is a form of love) is not something quite Gadamer I 237 different than an affective condition for recognition. It belongs to the relationship forms of "I" and "you". Certainly, in such a real moral relationship, knowledge is also effective, and in this respect it is indeed evident that love makes you see.(2) But sympathy is much more than just a condition of recognition. Through it the you is transformed at the same time. Droysen sees this in a deeper way: "That is the way you have to be, because that is how I love you: the secret of all education"(3) When Dilthey mentions the relationship of Thucydides to Pericles or Ranke's relationship to Luther, he is referring to a congenial intuitive connectedness that only spontaneously enables the historian to achieve an understanding that would otherwise be difficult to achieve. Basically, however, he considers such understanding, which in exceptional cases succeeds in an ingenious way, always attainable through the methodology of science. The fact that the humanities make use of comparative methods is expressly justified by the historian with their task of overcoming the accidental barriers that the own circle of experience depicts "and to ascend to truths of greater generality"(4). GadamerVsDilthey: See >Comparisons/Dilthey. 1. Dilthey, Ges. Schriften V, 277 2. Cf. above all the instructions concerning Max Scheler, Zur Phänomenologie und Theorie der Sympathiegefühle und von Liebe und Haß, 1913. 3. J.G. Droysen, Grundriss der Historik, 1868 § 41 4. Dilthey, Ges. Schriften VII, 99._____________Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition. |
Dilth I W. Dilthey Gesammelte Schriften, Bd.1, Einleitung in die Geisteswissenschaften Göttingen 1990 Gadamer I Hans-Georg Gadamer Wahrheit und Methode. Grundzüge einer philosophischen Hermeneutik 7. durchgesehene Auflage Tübingen 1960/2010 Gadamer II H. G. Gadamer The Relevance of the Beautiful, London 1986 German Edition: Die Aktualität des Schönen: Kunst als Spiel, Symbol und Fest Stuttgart 1977 |
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