Uploaded May 2025 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
Mark and Wes discuss "On the Problem of Empathy," ch. 4 "Empathy as the Comprehension of Mental Persons," starting with section 2, "The Mental Subject." We're trying to figure out what these early 20th century German phenomenologists (see also our previous Max Scheler reading: youtu.be/51LCbP5j5Yk) think a "person" is as someone we're able to empathize or sympathize with and which is morally worthy of respect. Stein does this by saying what the "I" (the self) is. It is the thing that "has" experiences, but also something that we understand in terms of a network of motivations, which are different than mere causes, in that they're supposed to be rational.
Read along with us, starting on p. 87 (PDF p. 107): stmaryscathedral.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/On-the-Problem-of-Empathy-Edith-Stein-auth-z-liborg.pdf.
Get more Closereads: Philosophy with Mark and Wes at closereadsphilosophy.com. Get additional parts to this and many other discussions at patreon.com/closereadsphilosophy. Note that any ads here are inserted by YouTube, with no money going to us. Everything on our Patreon page is ad free.
Mark and Wes discuss "On the Problem of Empathy," ch. 4 "Empathy as the Comprehension of Mental Persons," starting with section 2, "The Mental Subject." We're trying to figure out what these early 20th century German phenomenologists (see also our previous Max Scheler reading: youtu.be/51LCbP5j5Yk) think a "person" is as someone we're able to empathize or sympathize with and which is morally worthy of respect. Stein does this by saying what the "I" (the self) is. It is the thing that "has" experiences, but also something that we understand in terms of a network of motivations, which are different than mere causes, in that they're supposed to be rational.
Read along with us, starting on p. 87 (PDF p. 107): stmaryscathedral.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/On-the-Problem-of-Empathy-Edith-Stein-auth-z-liborg.pdf.
Get more Closereads: Philosophy with Mark and Wes at closereadsphilosophy.com. Get additional parts to this and many other discussions at patreon.com/closereadsphilosophy. Note that any ads here are inserted by YouTube, with no money going to us. Everything on our Patreon page is ad free.
