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Abstract: Knowing Me, Knowing You
Empathy is often criticized for being biased or partial. When we empathize with someone, we don’t empathize with another, therefore potentially making us biased against this other. For this reason, it is a poor tool in moral or legal matters. Knowing Me, Knowing You shows just how mistaken this view is. Because we are already biased by our own interests and concerns, empathy invariably makes us less biased and more impartial. In Part I, I demonstrate that our view of the world is not neutral or objective, but an integral function of our organismic being in the world. We see the world in relation to ourselves. In Part II, I show how perspective taking is fundamental to knowing others, knowing ourselves, and to a more objective and impartial view of the world.