Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T13:09:53.530Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Beyond Empathy for Pain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Frédérique de Vignemont  and
Pierre Jacob
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Here we address four objections raised by Julien Deonna, John Michael, and Francesca Fardo against a recent account of empathy for pain (by Frédérique de Vignemont and Tania Singer and Vignemont and Pierre Jacob). First, to what extent must the empathizer share her target’s affective state? Second, how can one interpret neuroscientific findings on vicarious pain in light of recent results challenging the notion of a pain matrix? Third, can one offer a simpler account of how empathy makes one aware of another’s emotion? Finally, to what extent can this account of empathy for pain be generalized to empathy for emotions?

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 83 , Issue 3 , July 2016 , pp. 434 - 445
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

†

This work has received support under the program Investissements d’Avenir launched by the French government and implemented by ANR-10-LABX-0087 IEC and ANR-10-IDEX-0001-02 PSL. We gratefully acknowledge support of the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Program (FP7/2007-2013)/ERC grant 609819, SOMICS.

References

Avenanti, Alessio, Bueti, D., Galati, G., and Aglioti, S.. 2005. “Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Highlights the Sensorimotor Side of Empathy for Pain.” Nature Neuroscience 87:955–60.Google Scholar
Avenanti, Alessio, Minio-Paluello, I., Bufalari, I., and Aglioti, S.. 2006. “Stimulus-Driven Modulation of Motor-Evoked Potentials during Observation of Others Pain.” Neuroimage 321:316–24.Google Scholar
Avenanti, Alessio, Minio-Paluello, I., Sforza, A., and Aglioti, S.. 2009. “Freezing or Escaping? Opposite Modulations of Empathic Reactivity to the Pain of Others.” Cortex 45 (9): 1072–77.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bain, David. 2013. “What Makes Pains Unpleasant?” Philosophical Studies 166 (1): 69–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cheng, Yawei, Lin, C. P., Liu, H. L., Hsu, Y. H., Lim, K. E., Hung, D., and Decety, J.. 2007. “Expertise Modulates the Perception of Pain in Others.” Current Biology 17 (19): 1708–13.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cutter, Brian, and Tye, Michael. 2011. “Tracking Representationalism and the Painfulness of Pain.” Philosophical Issues 21 (1): 90–109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Damasio, Antonio. 1999. The Feeling of What Happens. London: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Deonna, Julien. 2007. “The Structure of Empathy.” Journal of Moral Philosophy 4 (1): 99–116.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Engen, Haakon, and Singer, Tania. 2013. “Empathy Circuits.” Current Opinion in Neurobiology 23 (2): 275–82.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Garbarini, Francesca, Bucchioni, G., Fossatar, C., Bruno, V., Cavallo, A., Pia, L., and Neppi-Modona, M.. 2015. “Empathy or Ownership? Evidence of Corticopinal Modulation during Pain Observation.” Paper presented at the 5th Conference of the Federation of the European Societies of Neuropsychology, Tampere, Finland, September 9–11.Google Scholar
Iannetti, Giandomenico, Salomons, T. V., Moayedi, M., Mouraux, A., and Davis, K. D.. 2013. “Beyond Metaphor: Contrasting Mechanisms of Social and Physical Pain.” Trends in Cognitive Sciences 17 (8): 371–78.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jacob, Pierre. 2011. “The Direct-Perception Model of Empathy: A Critique.” Review of Philosophy and Psychology 2 (3): 519–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
James, William. 1884. “What Is an Emotion?” Mind 9:188–205.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keysers, Chistian, Wicker, B., Gazzola, V., Anton, J. L., Fogassi, L., and Gallese, V.. 2004. “A Touching Sight: SII/PV Activation during the Observation and Experience of Touch.” Neuron 42:335–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lamm, Claus, Batson, D., and Decety, J.. 2007. “The Neural Substrate of Human Empathy: Effects of Perspective-Taking and Cognitive Appraisal.” Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 191:42–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lamm, Claus, Meltzoff, A., and Decety, J.. 2010. “How Do We Empathize with Someone Who Is Not like Us? A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study.” Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 22:362–76.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Legrain, Valery, Iannetti, G. D., Plaghki, L., and Mouraux, A.. 2011. “The Pain Matrix Reloaded: A Salience Detection System for the Body.” Progress in Neurobiology 93 (1): 111–24.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Michael, John. 2014. “Towards a Consensus about the Role of Empathy in Interpersonal Understanding.” Topoi 33 (1): 157–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Michael, John, and Fardo, Francesca. 2014. “What (If Anything) Is Shared in Pain Empathy? A Critical Discussion of de Vignemont and Jacob’s Theory of the Neural Substrate of Pain Empathy.” Philosophy of Science 81 (1): 154–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prinz, Jesse. 2004. Gut Reactions: A Perceptual Theory of Emotion. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Scheler, Max. 1954. The Nature of Sympathy. Trans. Heath, P.. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Singer, Tania, Seymour, B., O’Doherty, J., Kaube, H., Dolan, R., and Frith, C. D.. 2004. “Empathy for Pain Involves the Affective but Not Sensory Components of Pain.” Science 303:1157–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Singer, Tania, Seymour, B., O’Doherty, J., Stephan, K., Dolan, R., and Frith, C. D.. 2006. “Empathic Neural Responses Are Modulated by the Perceived Fairness of Others.” Nature 439:466–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Solomon, Robert C. 1993. “The Philosophy of Emotions.” In Handbook of Emotions, 3rd ed., ed. Lewis, Michael, Haviland-Jones, Jeannette M., and Barrett, Lisa Feldman, 3–15. New York: Guilford.Google Scholar
Teroni, Fabrice, and Deonna, Julien. 2014. “In What Sense Are Emotions Evaluations?” In Emotion and Value, ed. Roeser, Sabine and Todd, Cain. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Vignemont, Frédérique, de. Forthcoming. “Can I See Your Pain? An Evaluativist Model of Pain Perception.” In Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Pain, ed. Jennifer Corns. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Vignemont, Frédérique, de, and Jacob, Pierre. 2012. “What Is It like to Feel Another’s Pain?” Philosophy of Science 79:295–316.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vignemont, Frédérique, de, and Singer, Tania. 2006. “The Empathic Brain: How, When and Why?” Trends Cogn Sci 10 (10): 435–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wicker, Bruno, Keysers, C., Plailly, J., Royet, J. P., Gallese, V., and Rizzolatti, G.. 2003. “Both of Us Disgusted in My Insula: The Common Neural Basis of Seeing and Feeling Disgust.” Neuron 40:655–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zahavi, Dan. 2011. “Empathy and Direct Social Perception: A Phenomenological Proposal.” Review of Philosophy and Psychology 2 (3): 541–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar