2. Description of Empathy in Comparison with Other Acts: The Essence of Acts of Empathy.

2. DESCRIPTION OF EMPATHY IN COMPARISON WITH OTHER ACTS

Empathy is the act of experiencing another person's feelings without directly perceiving them as objects. Unlike memory, expectation, or imagination, empathy engages with another’s consciousness while remaining distinct from one’s own. It unfolds in stages: the initial emergence of the experience, a deeper engagement with its tendencies, and finally, a full objectification of the empathized content. This act is primordial in its presence yet non-primordial in content, revealing the uniqueness of understanding foreign consciousness directly while retaining the individuality of both subject and object.

Empathy and Conscious Acts

Empathy becomes clear when compared to other conscious acts. When a friend shares their grief, we sense their pain. The focus is on what this awareness is, not how we interpret it. Unlike ordinary perception, the pain itself is never physically present. We see expressions and hear words, but the feeling arises within us as an act of understanding another person’s inner state.

Empathy vs Outer Perception

Outer perception involves observing things present in space and time. We see a face or hear a voice, which exist independently before us. Empathy shares the immediacy of outer perception but differs: it does not give the other’s feelings as concrete objects. Instead, feelings are grasped indirectly through their expressions while remaining distinct from our own sensations.

Primordial and Non-Primordial Experiences

Our own experiences can be primordial, fully present, or non-primordial, as in memories or imagination. Empathy mirrors this: the experience of another is present now but the content belongs to someone else. Memory recalls past feelings, expectation anticipates them, and fancy imagines them, yet empathy uniquely engages with another person’s experience while keeping the other’s subjectivity intact.

Stages of Empathic Experience

Empathy unfolds in three phases. First, the feeling emerges in us as an object. Second, we explore its tendencies and meaning, stepping into the other’s perspective. Finally, we fully understand and objectify the experience. Unlike our memories or fantasies, the empathized experience belongs to another person, preserving both their consciousness and ours as separate yet connected in awareness.

The Unique Nature of Empathy

Empathy allows humans to grasp another’s consciousness directly. It applies to emotions, thoughts, or even divine experiences. While it cannot merge our feelings with someone else’s, it provides access to their inner life in a structured and conscious way. This act is sui generis, showing that empathy is a distinct form of perceiving beyond perception, memory, or imagination.