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The Moral Brain pp 109–127Cite as

Empathy and Morality: Integrating Social and Neuroscience Approaches

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Philosophers and psychologists have long debated the nature of empathy (e.g., Batson, 1991; Eisenberg, 2000; Ickes, 2003; Thompson, 2001), and whether the capacity to share and understand other people’s emotions sets humans apart from other species (e.g., de Waal, 2005). Here, we consider empathy as a construct accounting for a sense of similarity in feelings experienced by the self and the other, without confusion between the two individuals (Decety & Jackson, 2004; Decety & Lamm, 2006)

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Acknowledgments

The writing of this chapter was supported by grant from the National Science Foundation to Jean Decety (BCS-0718480).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departments of Psychology and Psychiatry, and Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience, The University of Chicago, 5848 S. University Avenue, 60637, Chicago, IL, USA

    Jean Decety

  2. Department of Psychology, The University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, USA

    C. Daniel Batson

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  1. Jean Decety
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  2. C. Daniel Batson
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Correspondence to Jean Decety .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Ghent University, Blandijnberg 2, Gent, 9000, Belgium

    Jan Verplaetse

  2. Ghent University, Blandijnberg 2, Gent, 9000, Belgium

    Jelle Schrijver

  3. Dept. Neurosurgery, University Hospital Antwerp, Wilrijkstraat 10, Edegem, 2650, Belgium

    Sven Vanneste

  4. Ghent University, Blandijnberg 2, Gent, 9000, Belgium

    Johan Braeckman

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Decety, J., Batson, C.D. (2009). Empathy and Morality: Integrating Social and Neuroscience Approaches. In: Verplaetse, J., Schrijver, J., Vanneste, S., Braeckman, J. (eds) The Moral Brain. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-6287-2_5

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