Workshop: The philosophy of empathy - recent trends and new developments

4th - 5th of June 2020, MKE Munich (M210)

Organizers: Monika Betzler (LMU) and Hannah Read (Duke University)

Empathy means many different things to many different people. Scholars from across the humanities and life sciences have debated its nature, as well as its potential role in our dealings with one another. Yet, a number of important questions regarding empathy remain unanswered. For instance, what sorts of moral and epistemic goods does empathy of different kinds yield? What role should empathy play in developing virtue? To what extent should we have empathy for opponents and those with whom we deeply disagree? Is empathy something peculiar to human relationships, or it is something that we should extend to other non-human animals as well?

This workshop on Recent Trends in the Philosophy of Empathy at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München will bring together a diverse group of experts to address these and related questions. It will also serve as a focal point for researchers interested in current and future work on empathy.