As indicated at the close of the previous post, these final brief comments address two concluding items. The first has to do with some social benefits of sympathy and, especially, empathy. And here I offer, without further aside, three quotations. The first one is from Simon Baron-Cohen: “Empathy is vital for a healthy democracy, it…

Having now walked through the highlights of the various—and, in my judgment—the most appropriate definitions and usages of these terms, as well as a brief excursion into the crucial importance of sincerity in their expression, we turn now to the effects that those expressions may have on those who receive them as well as those…