Cogprints

Empathy and Analogy

Barnes, Allison and Thagard, Paul (1997) Empathy and Analogy. [Preprint]

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Abstract

We contend that empathy is best viewed as a kind of analogical thinking of the sort described in the multiconstraint theory of analogy proposed by Keith Holyoak and Paul Thagard (1995). Our account of empathy reveals the Theory-theory/Simulation theory debate to be based on a false assumption and formulated in terms too simple to capture the nature of mental state ascription. Empathy is always simulation, but may simultaneously include theory-application. By properly specifying the analogical processes of empathy and their constraints, we are able to show how the amount of theory needed to empathize is determined.

Item Type:Preprint
Subjects:Psychology > Cognitive Psychology
Philosophy > Epistemology
ID Code:620
Deposited By: Thagard, Paul
Deposited On:26 Mar 1998
Last Modified:11 Mar 2011 08:54

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