this post was submitted on 15 Sep 2025
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Empathize: to feel as you imagine others feels. Sympathize: to understand/relate to others' feelings.
When I read about empathy & compassion in Daoism, Buddhism, various Hindu traditions, etc, they're referring to your 1st definition. The most important part is not to merely feel or understand, but to respond with support, ie, act with compassion.
Your 1st & 2nd definitions are typically understood as going together: to feel as we imagine others feel, we try to liken them to ourselves & understand their experiences vicariously. If you want to separate feeling from understanding though, the word sympathize exists for merely understanding or relating to.
I remember as a child getting upset and someone telling me they sympathize, explaining the difference with empathize (eg, they say that means they understand but they don't feel), which just infuriated me further