Málstofa í hugmynda- og vísindasögu: Kasper Kristensen

Kasper Kristensen, doktor í heimspeki frá Uppsalaháskóla og rannsóknarstjóri Háskólans á Bifröst, flytur fyrirlesturinn „On Empathy and Morality in the History of Philosophy - with a Focus on Spinoza,“ í málstofu Sagnfræðistofnunar í hugmynda- og vísindasögu í stofu 303 í Árnagarði, fimmtudaginn 17. október kl. 16:00-17:00.  Viðburðurinn verður á ensku. Verið öll velkomin. 

Um fyrirlesturinn

Empathetic emotions, such as pity and compassion, involve feeling with the other, sharing in their suffering, and a motivation to relief it. Since antiquity, such emotions have related to morality and humanity, and been praised for their prosocial effects. Empathetic emotions have played a central role in Christian ethics, and the Enlightenment philosophers, such as Smith, Hume, and Rousseau, did not only argue that empathetic emotions are necessary for moral judgements and moral motivation but that they are necessary for upholding the ideals of liberty, equality, and fraternity. Similarly, contemporary philosophers have defended these emotions and necessary for developing moral virtues and well-functioning societal institutions that support democracy and human rights. One the other hand, critics from Stoics to Nietzsche have questioned the ethical value of empathising with other’s suffering and pointed out the inherent biases in empathetic emotions. Moreover, emotions such as pity and compassion seem to be closely linked with destructive emotions, including hate and indignation, and Arendt went as far as viewing cruelty and terror as the natural outcomes of politicised pity. This presentation analyses the different arguments concerning the ethical value of empathetic emotions through Spinoza’s philosophy. It is argued that Spinoza’s doctrine of the imitation of the affects explains the mechanism producing empathetic emotions in a novel way. Moreover, while Spinoza rejects the paradigmatic empathetic emotions, pity and compassion, as morally flawed, he defends another virtuous kind of empathy that plays an important role in fortifying the right moral motivation. The presentation concludes with suggesting ways of cultivating such virtuous empathy.