Abstract: Under the influence of Scottish philosophy the concept of empathy changed, it is still shaky and still defined by many currents of thought. It is different from sympathy (emotional contagion). Empathy is the capacity to put oneself in another person‘s position to understand its feelings or to imagine its mental representation. So empathy shows itself in different phenomena such as projection, identification and altruism. Husserl, in phenomenology, regards empathy as the decisive phenomenon from which inter-subjectivity emerges to elaborate a common world. Indeed, he renewed the comprehension of empathy and anticipated the development of neurosciences. Depraz, following Varela, shows primacy granted to others is embodied in the personal practice of compassion.
