The 'social brain' involves as much plastic cortex as brain areas for science, logic, and the three r's. Yet, until now, empathy has remained poorly understood. This engaging, humorous, and insightful book provides the first intellectually satisfying account of this sophisticated mode of human understanding. Maibom brilliantly reveals why empathy depends on emotion and how it makes us more--not less--impartial and objective.
Heidi L. Maibom received her Cand Phil from University of Copenhagen in 1994 and her PhD from University of London in 2000. She was a Postdoc in the Philosophy-Neuroscience-Psychology program at Washington University in St. Louis 2001-2003, and Assistant/Associate Professor of Philosophy at the Institute of Cognitive Science and Department of Philosophy at Carleton University 2003-2013. She has been Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Cincinnati since 2014. In 2021, she became Ikerbasque Research Professor & Distinguished Professor at ILCLI at the University of the Basque Country. She has held fellowships at Cambridge University and Princeton University.