Description
Book SynopsisWhen Barack Obama nominated Sonia Sotomayor to the US Supreme Court, his comments that a judge should have the heart, the empathy, to recognize what it''s like to be a young teenage mom, the empathy to understand what it''s like to be poor or African-American or gay, disabled, or old caused a furor. Objective, reasoned, and impartial judgment were to be replaced by partiality, sentiment, and bias, critics feared. This concern about empathy has since been voiced not just by conservative critics, but by academics and public figures. In The Space Between, Heidi Maibom combines results from philosophy, psychology, and neuroscience to argue that rather than making us more biased or partial, empathy makes us more impartial and more objective. The problem is that we don''t see the world objectively in the first place, Maibom explains. We see it in terms of how we are placed in it: as an extension of our interests, capabilities, and relationships. This is a perspective and it determines what w
Trade ReviewThe book's audience is interdisciplinary, and the writing is accessible. The text includes useful, sometimes humorous, examples and less jargon than one would expect when philosopher meets social psychologist and lawyer. This argument for empathy in moral decision-making will be welcome in law, philosophy, and social psychology collections. * Choice *
[The Space Between] is compelling in its arguments, and lively in its writing, with trenchant examples drawn not only from philosophical and psychological theorizing, but also from cultural sources as varied as A Midsummer Night's Dream, Moby Dick, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I learned a lot from reading this book; despite having studied empathy in one form or another for over 40 years, this book made me think about perspective taking in some entirely new ways. * Mark H. Davis, Professor Emeritus of Psychology, Eckerd College and author of Empathy: A Social Psychological Approach *
Heidi Maibom's new book is a comprehensive, philosophically astute, and psychologically meticulously researched study about the role that imaginative perspective-taking plays for interpersonal understanding and our self-conceptions. The Space Between: How Empathy Really Works is a thoroughly enjoyable read in that it illustrates abstract points through well-chosen examples from literature, film, and ordinary life. It very much practices what it preaches. * Karsten R. Stueber, Professor of Philosophy, College of the Holy Cross and author of Rediscovering Empathy *
The 'social brain' involves as much plastic cortex as brain areas for science, logic, and the three r's. Yet, until now, empathy has remained poorly understood. This engaging, humorous, and insightful book provides the first intellectually satisfying account of this sophisticated mode of human understanding. Maibom brilliantly reveals why empathy depends on emotion and how it makes us more--not less--impartial and objective. * Anthony I. Jack, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Brain, Mind & Consciousness Lab, Case Western Reserve University *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Introduction PART I: PERSPECTIVES: WHAT ARE THEY? Chapter 1: The Space Between Chapter 2: What Is a Perspective? Chapter 3: The Self as Agent, The Self as Observer Chapter 4: Victims and Perpetrators Chapter 5: Getting Interpersonal PART II: HOW TO TAKE ANOTHER POINT OF VIEW Chapter 6: Perspective Taking Chapter 7: Knowing You Chapter 8: Knowing Me Chapter 9: The Empathy Trap Chapter 10: Being Impartial References
