Ethics

Abstract

Abstract A basic theme in ethics concerns how one relates to others. This chapter explores this, through the concepts of empathy and community, as found in the works of Edith Stein and Gerda Walther. Some ethical theories take as their starting point the idea that human beings are selfish individuals, and view ethics as a corrective to that. Stein and Walther, with their emphasis on empathy and community, offer a different picture of human beings and their relations to each other, one where we feel and live together. This chapter unpacks the ethical significance of their conceptions of empathy and community. In doing so, it compares and contrasts their views with each other’s, and also one of the prominent ethical theorists in German philosophy, Kant.