Empathy as the imaginary transposition of oneself to the place of the other—is active and cognitive .
Instead of simply the involuntary, bodily pairing of self and other, cognitive
perspective-taking processes are used to imagine or mentally transpose oneself
into the place of the other
Frans de Waal, argues that empathy should not be seen as
an all-or-nothing phenomenon. In de Waal’s words: “Many forms of empathy
exist intermediate between the extremes of mere agitation and distress of another and full understanding of their predicament.
At one end of the spectrum,
rhesus (monkeys}infants get upset and seek contact with one another as soon as one of
them screams. At the other end, a chimpanzee recalls a wound he has inflicted,
and returns to the victim to inspect it.
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