Empathy

According to researchers from different fields of knowledge, empathy is a multifaceted and not watertight concept that originally comes from German psychology, in the term Einfühlung, which in a literal translation means “feel-I, feel in me.” Empathy refers to “putting on other people’s shoes;” that is, trying to understand the world from the other side.

This ability, to recognize how the other feels in a given situation, is different from having pity or compassion, or, as the philosopher and founder of the Empathy Museum in London, England, Roman Krznaric, explains, empathy is not “making to others what you would like them to do for you” because the interests of one do not necessarily coincide with those of the others. For him, empathy is the ability to understand perspectives and findings, actively making use of that understanding to guide your actions. In other words, empathy is a subjective action, but it has active consequences.

In education, the development of empathy is understood as a value present in interactions between students and between students and the school community. The teaching-learning process requires an empathetic look at the needs, aptitudes, and difficulties of the other.

A dimension that serves as the basis of the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow program, empathy is the starting point for any action of social transformation: it is by deeply understanding the needs, desires, and desires of the other that projects capable of responding to the great global challenges are developed.