The CEU Philosophy Department cordially invites you to a talk
(as part of its Departmental Colloquium series)
by
Pierre Jacob (Institut Jean Nicod)
on
Can one share another's pain?
Tuesday, 30 March, 2010, 4.30 PM, Zrinyi 14, Room 412
ABSTRACT
The goal of this paper is to sketch an account of empathetic pain.
The experience of empathetic pain is a species of vicarious experiences of pain.
Empathetic responses to another's affective state of kind S are vicarious experiences
of affective states of kind S. There are presently two prevalent approaches to empathetic
experiences in both cognitive science and philosophy: a mimicry approach (based on the
discovery of mirror neurons) and the direct perception approach. Both approaches face
insuperable objections. I argue instead for an imagination-based account of vicarious pain
and turn to some neuroscientific findings in order to try and account for the distinction
between two kinds of vicarious experiences of pain: contagious experiences and empathetic
experiences.
Kriszta Biber
Department Coordinator
Philosophy Department
Tel: 36-1-327-3806
Fax: 36-1-327-3072
E-mail: biberk(a)ceu.hu