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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

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

John Michael  and
Francesca Fardo
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Abstract

In a recent article in Philosophy of Science, De Vignemont and Jacob defend the view that empathy involves interpersonal similarity between an empathizer and a target person with respect to internal affective states. Focusing on empathy for pain, they propose a theory of the neural substrate of pain empathy. We point out several flaws in their interpretation of the data and argue that currently available data do not differentiate between De Vignemont and Jacob’s model and alternative models. Finally, we offer some suggestions about how this might be achieved in future research.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 81 , Issue 1 , January 2014 , pp. 154 - 160
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

†

We would like to thank S⊘ren Overgaard, Dan Zahavi, Joe Neisser, and Micah Allen for helpful suggestions on an earlier version of this article.

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