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Wineburg and Fournier (1994) use the
following extract to make a point about empathy or as they refer to it,
"contextualised thinking" in history.
The extract is a quote from a speech by
Abraham Lincoln. Wineburg and Fournier invite students "to consider these words
of the man often referred to as 'The Great Emancipator', on the topic of race
relations:
"I have no purpose to
introduce political and social equality between the white and black races.
There is a physical difference between the two, which in my judgement will
probably forever forbid their living together upon the footing of perfect
equality, and inasmuch as it becomes a necessity that there must be a
difference, I am in favor of the race to which I belong, having the superior
position. I have never said anything to the contrary."
Abraham Lincoln
(pub. 1989) Speeches and writings, Vols 1 and 2, New York, Library of
America |
Wineburg and Fournier go on to provide
further information about the speech:
"We cannot separate Lincoln's words... from
the occasion in which they were uttered (a debate with Stephen A. Douglas for a
fiercely contested senatorial seat), the location of this debate (Ottowa, IL.,
a hotbed of anti-black sentiment), the kinds of people who heard the debate
(largely supportive of Douglas and suspicious of Lincoln), and the fact that
both Lincoln and Douglas addressed these people not as prophets or moralists,
but as candidates courting votes.... But other forms of context - the climate
of opinion, mentalite or zeitgeist; the biography of a complex human being and
his style with words and utterances; the linguistic meanings of words in the
1850s- must also be considered when thinking about the meaning of Lincoln's
words." (Wineburg and Fournier, 1994, p. 287)
If we look at empathy as "contextualised
thinking", and not "imaginative thinking"; are we not saying much more than
what people believe and say and do is influenced by time and place?
If you are interested in empathy, I would
strongly recommend trying to get hold of the article from which the quote was
taken (see Reading).
Further reading on
Empathy
Back to Empathy
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