Empathy and Democracy

Empathy and Democracy PDF Author: Michael E. Morrell
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 0271051221
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
Democracy harbors within it fundamental tensions between the ideal of giving everyone equal consideration and the reality of having to make legitimate, binding collective decisions. Democracies have granted political rights to more groups of people, but formal rights have not always guaranteed equal consideration or democratic legitimacy. It is Michael Morrell’s argument in this book that empathy plays a crucial role in enabling democratic deliberation to function the way it should. Drawing on empirical studies of empathy, including his own, Morrell offers a “process model of empathy” that incorporates both affect and cognition. He shows how this model can help democratic theorists who emphasize the importance of deliberation answer their critics.

Empathy and Democracy

Empathy and Democracy PDF Author: Michael E. Morrell
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 0271051221
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 232

Get Book Here

Book Description
Democracy harbors within it fundamental tensions between the ideal of giving everyone equal consideration and the reality of having to make legitimate, binding collective decisions. Democracies have granted political rights to more groups of people, but formal rights have not always guaranteed equal consideration or democratic legitimacy. It is Michael Morrell’s argument in this book that empathy plays a crucial role in enabling democratic deliberation to function the way it should. Drawing on empirical studies of empathy, including his own, Morrell offers a “process model of empathy” that incorporates both affect and cognition. He shows how this model can help democratic theorists who emphasize the importance of deliberation answer their critics.

Beyond Empathy and Inclusion

Beyond Empathy and Inclusion PDF Author: Mary F. Scudder
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019753547X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 229

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Book Description
Political theorists often see deliberation--understood as communication and debate among citizens--as a fundamental act of democratic citizenship. In other words, the legitimacy of a decision is not simply a function of the number of votes received, but the quality of the deliberation that precedes voting. Efforts to enhance the quality of deliberation have focused on designing more inclusive deliberative procedures or encouraging citizens to be more internally reflective or empathetic. But the adequacy of such efforts remains questionable. Beyond Empathy and Inclusion aims to better understand the prospects of democracy in a world where citizens are often uninterested or unwilling to engage across social distance and disagreement. Specifically, the book considers how our practices of listening affect the quality and democratic potential of deliberation. Mary F. Scudder offers a systematic theory of listening acts to explain the democratic force of listening. Modeled after speech act theory, Scudder's listening act theory shows how we do something in the act of listening, independent of the outcomes of this act. In listening to our fellow citizens, we recognize their moral equality of voice. Being heard by our fellow citizens is what ensures we have a say in the laws to which we are held. The book also tackles timely questions regarding the limits of toleration and listening in a democratic society. Do we owe listening even to democracy's enemies? After all, a virtue of democratic citizenship is the ability to resist political movements that seek to destroy democracy. Despite these challenges and risks, Scudder shows that listening is a key responsibility of democratic citizenship, and examines how listening can be used defensively to protect against threats to democracy. While listening is admittedly difficult, especially in pluralist societies, this book investigates how to motivate citizens to listen seriously, attentively, and humbly, even to those with whom they disagree.

Educating for Empathy

Educating for Empathy PDF Author: Nicole Mirra
Publisher: Teachers College Press
ISBN: 0807777285
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Educating for Empathy presents a compelling framework for thinking about the purpose and practice of literacy education in a politically polarized world. Mirra proposes a model of critical civic empathy that encourages secondary ELA teachers to consider how issues of power and inequity play out in the literacy classroom and how to envision literacy practices as a means of civic engagement. The book reviews core elements of ELA instruction—response to literature, classroom discussion, research, and digital literacy—and demonstrates how these activities can be adapted to foster critical thinking and empathetic perspectives among students. Chapters depict teachers and students engaging in this transformative learning, offer concrete strategies for the classroom, and pose questions to guide school communities in collaborative reflection. “If educators were to follow Mirra’s model, we will have come a long way toward educating and motivating young people to become involved, engaged, and caring citizens.” —Sonia Nieto, professor emerita, University of Massachusetts, Amherst “Grounded in respectful research partnerships with youth and teachers, this is a book that will resonate with and inspire educators in these precarious times.” —Gerald Campano, University of Pennsylvania “If ever there were a time for a book on empathy in education, the moment is now.” —Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz, Teachers College, Columbia University

The Feeling of Inequality

The Feeling of Inequality PDF Author: Martin Hartmann
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0197500862
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
How does socio-economic inequality affect our ability to relate to each other on emotional and intellectual levels? To date, public discourse on the rising level of inequality in many Western nations has been informed by quantifiable terms such as income and capital. Philosophical approaches, conversely, tend to focus on distributional aspects such as welfare, resources, and opportunities. In The Feeling of Inequality, author Martin Hartmann argues that the impact of inequality far transcends the material, highlighting the ways in which the emotional aspects of these disparities serve as engines of social differentiation. Reinterpreting David Hume's and Adam Smith's respective theories of sympathy, Hartmann sketches a relational theory of democracy that construes equality as a social relationship, placing particular emphasis on the emotions and attitudes that often accompany inequality such as contempt, envy, shame, esteem, pride, and admiration. Hartmann then localizes these 'relative' emotions in social and cultural practices, illustrating the ways in which these emotions result in concrete manifestations of inequality. By breaking down the foundations of the various empathy gulfs plaguing contemporary democratic societies, Hartmann paves the way for a more compassionate approach to thinking about inequality.

Not for Profit

Not for Profit PDF Author: Martha C. Nussbaum
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 069117332X
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description
In this short and powerful book, celebrated philosopher Martha Nussbaum makes a passionate case for the importance of the liberal arts at all levels of education. Historically, the humanities have been central to education because they have been seen as essential for creating competent democratic citizens. But recently, Nussbaum argues, thinking about the aims of education has gone disturbingly awry in the United States and abroad. We increasingly treat education as though its primary goal were to teach students to be economically productive rather than to think critically and become knowledgeable, productive, and empathetic individuals. This shortsighted focus on profitable skills has eroded our ability to criticize authority, reduced our sympathy with the marginalized and different, and damaged our competence to deal with complex global problems. And the loss of these basic capacities jeopardizes the health of democracies and the hope of a decent world. In response to this dire situation, Nussbaum argues that we must resist efforts to reduce education to a tool of the gross national product. Rather, we must work to reconnect education to the humanities in order to give students the capacity to be true democratic citizens of their countries and the world. In a new preface, Nussbaum explores the current state of humanistic education globally and shows why the crisis of the humanities has far from abated. Translated into over twenty languages, Not for Profit draws on the stories of troubling—and hopeful—global educational developments. Nussbaum offers a manifesto that should be a rallying cry for anyone who cares about the deepest purposes of education.

Radical Empathy

Radical Empathy PDF Author: Terri Givens
Publisher: Policy Press
ISBN: 1447357256
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description
Renowned political scientist Terri Givens calls for ‘radical empathy’ in bridging racial divides to understand the origins of our biases, including internalized oppression. Deftly weaving together her own experiences with the political, she offers practical steps to call out racism and bring about radical social change.

Homo Empathicus

Homo Empathicus PDF Author: Alexander Gorlach
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
ISBN: 0815738404
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 164

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Book Description
" How societies can preserve democracy with a human-directed social contract The recent rise of populist movements, especially in Western democracies, has prompted considerable thoughtful analysis. This remarkable book, digging deeper than most such efforts, cites the global financial crisis as the proximate cause but finds the ultimate source in the twin failures of modern capitalism and the democratic state to fulfill a meaningful social contract for the vast majority of people. The book's focus on the financial crisis underscores how the promises of liberal democracy were repeatedly broken by financial and political elites, with a backlash emerging in the form of “us-against-them” populism. By undermining the hopes and livelihoods of millions of people, the crisis created its own narrative, with consequences capable of causing lasting damage to the liberal world order. To restore the values of liberal democracy, the author proposes a “truly human social contract” supported by a narrative of empathy. The basis of such a contract is a new view of civil and social rights asan expression of human dignity, with economic factors understood as moral concerns, not just as a matter of who gets the most. "

Empathy and Democracy

Empathy and Democracy PDF Author: Michael E. Morrell
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 0271074353
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description
Democracy harbors within it fundamental tensions between the ideal of giving everyone equal consideration and the reality of having to make legitimate, binding collective decisions. Democracies have granted political rights to more groups of people, but formal rights have not always guaranteed equal consideration or democratic legitimacy. It is Michael Morrell’s argument in this book that empathy plays a crucial role in enabling democratic deliberation to function the way it should. Drawing on empirical studies of empathy, including his own, Morrell offers a “process model of empathy” that incorporates both affect and cognition. He shows how this model can help democratic theorists who emphasize the importance of deliberation answer their critics.

Against Empathy

Against Empathy PDF Author: Paul Bloom
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0062339354
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
New York Post Best Book of 2016 We often think of our capacity to experience the suffering of others as the ultimate source of goodness. Many of our wisest policy-makers, activists, scientists, and philosophers agree that the only problem with empathy is that we don’t have enough of it. Nothing could be farther from the truth, argues Yale researcher Paul Bloom. In AGAINST EMPATHY, Bloom reveals empathy to be one of the leading motivators of inequality and immorality in society. Far from helping us to improve the lives of others, empathy is a capricious and irrational emotion that appeals to our narrow prejudices. It muddles our judgment and, ironically, often leads to cruelty. We are at our best when we are smart enough not to rely on it, but to draw instead upon a more distanced compassion. Basing his argument on groundbreaking scientific findings, Bloom makes the case that some of the worst decisions made by individuals and nations—who to give money to, when to go to war, how to respond to climate change, and who to imprison—are too often motivated by honest, yet misplaced, emotions. With precision and wit, he demonstrates how empathy distorts our judgment in every aspect of our lives, from philanthropy and charity to the justice system; from medical care and education to parenting and marriage. Without empathy, Bloom insists, our decisions would be clearer, fairer, and—yes—ultimately more moral. Brilliantly argued, urgent and humane, AGAINST EMPATHY shows us that, when it comes to both major policy decisions and the choices we make in our everyday lives, limiting our impulse toward empathy is often the most compassionate choice we can make.

Improv for Democracy

Improv for Democracy PDF Author: Don Waisanen
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 1438481179
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 294

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Book Description
While much has been written about what democracies should look like, much less has been said about how to actually train citizens in democratic perspectives and skills. Amid the social and political crises of our time, many programs seeking to bridge differences between citizens draw from the surprising field of improvisational theater. Improv trains people to engage with one another in ways that promote empathy and understanding. Don Waisanen demonstrates how improv-based teaching and training methods can forward the communication, leadership, and civic skills our world urgently needs. Waisanen includes specific exercises and thought experiments that can be used by educators; advocates for civic engagement and civil discourse; practitioners and scholars in communication, leadership, and conflict management; training and development specialists; administrators looking to build new curricula or programming; and professionals seeking to embed productive, sustainable, and socially responsible forms of interaction in and across organizations. Ultimately this book offers a new approach for helping people become more creative, heighten awareness, think faster, build confidence, operate flexibly, improve expression and governance skills, and above all, think and act more democratically.