The Ethics of Empathy About the Status of Compassion in Literary Ethical Criticism

Abstract

Empathy may appear as an operative term due to its multifaceted nature – it can be used to reflect on the social role of literature and art, on the reader–work (or reader–literary hero) relationship, as well as on narrative mechanisms designed to evoke empathy at the recipients. Besides practical aspects, that most often reason for researchers to reflect on the empathetic dimensions of reading are ethical issues. Attention is paid to the value of contact with irreducible otherness, to the ethical dimension of coexistence, and participation is positively assessed by default. The paper refers to an American psychologist, Paul Bloom’s opinion, who assesses the negative impact of empathy on the process of making moral decisions. The author shows that although the literary understanding of empathy may be declaratively different from the psychological one, the ethical consequences of making this category a central tool for interpreting texts and phenomena will remain similar. Bloom’s critique of empathy may shed new light on many current literary problems.