Empathy, Complex Thinking, and Their Interconnections

The chapter aims to examine the interconnections between empathy and complex thinking. Part of the considerations presented here draw on a research study on youths' relationship with cultural diversity through the analysis of anonymous open-ended essays written by secondary school pupils. The different components of empathy, and the emotional component in particular, are examined. Also the constituent aspects of complex thinking are presented and analysed. The risks of a 'mutilated' thought, characterized by a lack or a scarcity of complexity, are mentioned. The importance of fostering youths' complex thinking and empathic abilities is emphasized and the role of the arts, especially of literature, in shedding more light on the complexity of human mind, including its empathic abilities, is also underlined. The definition of empathy is examined and suggestions for enriching the debate on the nature of empathy are proposed.