Empathy and Sympathy
最近在想这两个词：Empathy and Sympathy，觉得挺有意思，分享几句抽象枯燥的感悟。
因为中文对 Empathy 的翻译不理想，就用英文也写了一篇。
Empathy 的意思是自己对他人的处境和感受的理解和体会的能力， 不仅仅是同感，还包括自己没有经受过的，甚至是有相反感受的经历。 这本是人与生俱来的能力，也是生活中的积累，但这个能力的大小却因人而宜且差别极大，只有不断学会怎样与自己的感受相连又要学会怎样抛开主观的感受才能扩大这个能力。用我们熟悉的词语善解人意和设身处地来描述 Empathy 的含义是比较接近的。
Sympathy 可以简单翻译成同情。
同情可以因理解而产生，固有同病相怜之说。而这个理解和体会他人的能力可以扩大到不因同病而相怜，这是人的一种潜力，需要有心去挖掘。
同情的行为也可以不因深刻理解而产生，但是不容易达到因理解而产生的另一种高度，也不容易持久。
所以，扩大对人的深层次和全面的理解加体会是非常重要的，也可以改变自己由一些主观、狭隘、偏执、极端的思维所造成的错误判断和行动。
Recently, I’ve been thinking of these two words: Empathy and Sympathy. They are different, but related.
According to Wiki, Empathy is defined as “the capacity to recognize feelings that are being experienced by another sentient or semi-sentient (in fiction writing) being.” The key word here is the capacity. As humans, we were all born with some level of this capacity; yet, as individuals the level of the capacity various tremendously.
On the other hand, “Sympathy” is defined as “an extension of empathic concern, or the perception, understanding, and reaction to the distress or need of another human being.”
As we can see that “Sympathy” can come from “Empathy” but may not be an inevitable result. Understanding and feeling what others feel opens one’s eyes, awakens one’s conscious and softens one’s heart. Consequently, increasing the capacity of one’s empathy can help increase one’s sympathy with an exception of no conscious and compassion at all.
Furthermore, we can think about the opposite. One can also have sympathetic action without having a good capacity of empathy. However this action would not automatically improve the capacity of empathy and would not be extended or sustainable to reach the level of sympathy that originated from empathy. If sympathetic action can also lead to the improvement of one’s capacity of empathy, then the result could be dramatic, because they enhance each other.
Therefore, improving our capacity of empathy through consistent learning and practicing is fundamentally important, which also help avoid prejudice, stubbornness and narrow vision caused wrong judgments and actions.