Edith Stein: empatia e vida associativa

https://brasiliensis.cerm.org.br/index.php/brasiliensis/article/view/144/version/144

This article, before analyzing the theme of empathy in Edith Stein’s studies and her contribution to the analysis of human aggregations, briefly presents the intellectual growth of Edith Stein, the contributions of various philosophers in her philosophical development until her reflection on empathy; as well as the force of having been “reached by Christ” and the influence of the writings of St. Teresa of Avila, which led to her conversion to Catholicism. For Edith Stein, empathy is what allows one to realize the other, to enter into relationship with the subject (without reducing or disregarding him as a person). Through empathy, one can enter into the experience of the other, identifying their values and attitudes, valuing alterity, without falling into indifference. In analyzing the main forms of human aggregation (community, mass, society, state), Stein finds that the community is the associative form that most respects the individuality and dignity of each person, since it is based on the exchange of gifts (possible by empathic experience) and accessibility (solidarity) of each individual composing it. In opposition, in the other social forms some personal factor will be reduced, manipulated or disregarded to maintain the internal structure of this social form. For Stein, since man is a personal and communitarian being since his genesis, he needs growth in empathic experience and solidarity, not to be diluted or sold to social experiences that deprive him of his value but allow him to grow always more, as a person.