NEH Enduring Questions Course on "What is Empathy?"

FAIN: AQ-50944-13

University of Connecticut (Storrs, CT 06269-9000)
Anna Mae Duane (Project Director: September 2012 to September 2016)

The development of a one-semester capstone course examining the question, What is empathy?

I propose a course entitled "What is Empathy," designed to explore how religious thinkers, ethicists, and political visionaries of the past have approached this aspect of human nature, and how modern neuroscientists, human rights activists and cognitive theorists are asking new questions about the work empathy does. With readings ranging from Aristotle's discussion of logos, ethos and pathos to scientific descriptions of "mirror neurons" that enable individuals to experience the feelings of others, students will engage on a intellectual journey that will bridge wide swaths of culture and chronology. In short, the course aims to enact in form what it seeks to teach in content: students will be stretched outside their usual perspectives to engage the arguments and experiences of others in profound ways.