Empathy: radical thinking and seeing

Dr Colin Marshall (University of Melbourne)

We tend to think that part of being a good person is being sensitive to the feelings and experiences of others (being empathetic). But, in our imperfect world, being empathetic is hard: It means being disturbed by the suffering around us. So it’s not surprising that some philosophers (e.g. Nietzsche) have proposed that we would be better off without empathy.

In this talk, Dr Colin Marshall draws on the ideas of John Locke and Arthur Schopenhauer to argue that empathy is a crucial part of our connection to objective truth (and, yes, he’ll argue that there is objective truth!). Because of that, people like sociopaths who lack empathy are blind to the reality experienced by other people and animals. But its not just the sociopaths we should be concerned about; if we took empathy seriously, it would radically change almost every aspect of our culture and our daily lives.

RSVP: Please note RSVP is essential as numbers are limited to 60 people

You can reserve your place @ [email protected].