Empathy and the Aesthetic Mind

Art is a constant point of reference for the exploration of the different manifestations of empathy and of its cognitive, affective and moral dimensions. Bringing together 15 essays from a team of established and rising philosophers, this volume sheds light on how both representational and non-representational forms of art allow empathic engagement. It examines the significance of such engagement for cognition, our emotive life and our moral stance. Opening with a historical reconstruction of the origins of empathy, or ''Einfuhlung'', in the German-speaking world from the late 19th to the early 20th century, the collection highlights the relevance of those early insights for current debates. Structured into four parts, chapters explore our emphatic engagement with fictional characters, with the inanimate in art forms such as film, music and architecture, with the cognitive value of empathy with fiction, and finally our emphatic response to fiction in relation to our moral attitudes. The contributors reflect on these specific themes and bring into sharp focus our emphatic engagement with works of art from historical, systematic and interdisciplinary perspectives.>

Préface
­Explores empathy across the arts, as well as cognitive and moral dimensions of aesthetic empathy.

Auteur
Katerina Bantinaki is Assistant Professor of Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art at the University of Crete, Greece.Efi Kyprianidou is Assistant Professor in Aesthetics, Philosophy and Theory of Arts at Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus.Fotini Vassiliou is Assistant Professor in Phenomenology at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece.

Contenu
Introduction K. Bantinaki, E. Kyprianidou and F. Vassiliou 1. What Is Aesthetic Empathy and How Does it Work? A HistoricSystematic Approach Thomas Petraschka Part I. Empathy with Fictional Others: Challenges and Complexities 2. Imagining Empathy for Fictional Characters Jonathan Gilmore 3. Imaginative Freedom and Epistemic Constraints in the Context of Literary Text Julia Langkau 4. Videogames as Vehicles for Empathetic Perspective-Shifting: Imagining Psychosis in Hellblade Christopher Bartel 5. Authentic Performance and Empathy Maria José Alcaraz León Part II. Empathy and Aesthetic Cognitivism 6. Empathy, Imagination, and the Epistemic Value of Fiction Amy Kind 7. Affective Empathy and Imagined Emotion in Literary Fiction Cain Todd 8. Empathic Imaginings and 'Knowledge of What it Is Like' in Aesthetic Cognitivism Íngrid Vendrell Ferran Part III. Empathy and the Moral Stance 9. The Rhetoric of Empathy in Narrative Film Carl Plantinga 10. Stepping Into Ill-Fitting Shoes: The Rewards and Perils of Empathy for Rough Heroes Panos Paris 11. Cheap Empathy: Sam Lipsyte's The Ask Tzachi Zamir Part IV. Beyond Fiction: Empathy in the Experience of Music and Architecture 12. The Role of Empathy in Musical Experience and Understanding Joel Smith 13. The Social Dimension of Music Listening: Empathy and the Experience of Feeling Moved Jonna Vuoskoski 14. Varieties of Empathy in Architecture Anne Tüscher 15. From Feeling Into to Feeling With: Rhythm, Resonance and Response Sarah Robinson Index