Empathy & Sympathy

James R. Robinson asks, how do they relate, and how do they differ?

- James R. Robinson

Empathy' and 'sympathy' are often used interchangeably, because they are related terms. However, they differ in some important ways, which I hope to make clear. Affections are the star of the show in this article, because my explanation of empathy and sympathy as emotional mechanisms rests upon them being different ways of relating to affections. So I will first attempt to explain what affections are, then why affections are important for understanding empathy and sympathy, before then explaining how empathy and sympathy relate, and how they are different.

Contrasting Affections to Passions

Affections are, simply put, the mental expression of emotions. Five examples are enthusiasm, resentment, forgiveness, attention, and love. I'll get into the details of some of these examples later. For now, I think one of the most efficient ways to explain affections is to contrast them with passions.

On the definition I’m using, a passion is an involuntary feeling arising in the body. Passions are responses to adrenaline surges or directly to physical causes. My (unusual) example is the passion of a pain felt whilst cooking: specifically, the sensation felt in response to touching a very hot pan on the stove. This feeling is clearly involuntary - we do not choose to feel the sensation of being burnt. (This does not rule out having control over our passions in certain senses: anger is a passion but it can be controlled or even channelled.) Moreover, this feeling is also undoubtedly physical, as it manifests itself within the part of the hand exposed to the heat. There will also likely be visible evidence of blistering on the skin, or worse.