Does It Take Two to Empathize?

Abstract

Most definitions of empathy stress its interpersonal nature: Empathy requires a human sender and a human receiver, where all parties involved have the theoretical capacity to accurately understand each other’s minds. Because empathy is inherently interpersonal, some scholars have questioned whether empathy between humans and artificial intelligence as it currently exists (e.g., large language models) is “real.” However, the requirement for two minds, each with the theoretical capacity to fully understand the thoughts and emotions of the other, is also not clearly met in other domains where empathy is discussed, such as empathy between humans and non-human animals or empathy with nature. This chapter critically examines these assumptions about what is needed for empathy to occur, offering several possible sets of empathy requirements that researchers might engage with, and outlining potential challenges researchers might face if they adopt any particular set of requirements in their work. Ultimately, we pose the question of whether two minds and/or the ability for minds to understand each other are truly necessary for empathy, or whether all that is required for empathy to occur is an entity’s perception of giving or receiving it.