A Proper Understanding Of Empathy:

After the emergence of the concept of empathy,scholars at home and abroad have carried out many discussions on its connotation and significance.Many of these studies have shown that empathy is indispensable in the formation of moral judgment,moral development,and moral behavior.Among them,David Hume’s ethical theory incorporates empathy into the integrated concept of sympathy mechanism,emphasizing the basic role of sympathy mechanism as one of moral sources.But contrary to the idea of supporting empathy,many theorists have been questioning and opposing empathy.They believe that empathy exacerbates prejudice and is neither sufficient nor necessary for moral judgments and moral motivations.In the face of two opposite views,we hope to have an objective and clear understanding of empathy by examining typical views.Therefore,this article explores Paul Bloom and David Hume as representatives of opposition/support empathy.By thinking about the two people’s viewpoints,we find that Bloom’s viewpoint has a lot of confusion in both the conceptual analysis and the argumentation process,and the superiority of the concept integration exhibited by Hume’s Sympathy Theory just avoids tbese confusions.And the other powerful principles in Hume.s ethical system provide us with a broad idea to further expand the mechanism of sympathy and avoid the limitations of anpathy.Therefore,we combine the limited sympathy mechanism with the general point of view,thereby reducing the prejudice problem of empathy,and at the same time obtaining an expanded sympathy;Accompanied by this expanded sympathy is a wide range of benevolence.Because of its positive warmth,it can in turn further expand empathy,giving society and others a general concern,thus correcting and limiting the prejudice and lack of motivations that sympathy may have.Finally,this paper hopes to make a proper summary of the understanding of empathy:although empathy is flawed,it can not only influence moral judgments,but also play a necessary role in the formation of moral judgments in the long historical process.Empathy sets a universal,shareable mental and human foundation for us to achieve moral judgments and develop ethics.It shows a dazzling light in the complex and trivial daily life,and more importantly,it can work in conjunction with other principles avoiding disadvantages and exerting a broad,universal and long-term positive effect on morality and moral psychology.