This is the third in my series on empathy.
Sympathy is an intellectual concept. It’s based on a contrast of values. It leads to an opinion first and a feeling second. Sympathy may or may not trigger a feeling. A person who has no feelings at all can still sympathize with others...
What passes for intellectual empathy is not empathy at all, it’s simply a verbal means of communicating feeling, but if there is no feeling, then it’s just verbiage.
“If you made a sadist more empathic, it would just lead to a happier sadist.” — Paul Bloom