Abstract

In the past few years, there has been a lively debate on whether and how phenomenology can contribute to social cognition research. Notably, some have doubted whether first-personal, phenomenological descriptions of intersubjective experience and interaction can support or disconfirm certain theories about social cognition (e.g., Spaulding 2015). In contrast to such an assessment, the aim of the present contribution will be to present an overview of the rich and detailed discussion of empathy found in the phenomenological tradition, focussing particularly on those aspects of this discussion that we believe to contain important and subtle insights of contemporary relevance.