Pedagogiczne i psychologiczne aspekty empatii w twórczości naukowej i życiu Edyty Stein

The origins of the term ‘empathy’ go back to the beginning of the 20th century, when the foundation of analyses of the phenomenon were philosophical (phenomenological) deliberations on the issue of getting to know mental states of other people. The first psychologist to draw on achievements of phenomenologists and to use the term Die Einfühlung was Theodor Lipps (Lipps 1897). In the Anglo-Saxon literature the term was translated as ‘empathy’, sharing another person’s emotions. In our times, in pedagogy and psychotherapy, significant findings on empathy were made by Carl Rogers (1975), a personality psychologist. The article presents fragments of selected Edith Stein’s letters and statements that prove her interest in the issue of empathy both in her academic as well as personal life.