Einfuehlung: Transposition or Transmission?

Drawing from Husserl’s analyses, this article argues for the possibility of a deeper meaning of empathy (Einfühlung) that can be grounded in the passive synthesis of association. If, on one hand, we understand empathy as an appresentation of the other monad and as the transposi- tion of that which intersubjectively binds us together in an intentional connection, we can also see that empathy presents as something that unconsciously forms (bildet) itselfs, independent of the «I’s capacity for attention»,2 as developed in Husserl’s discussion of passive synthesis. This auto-construction (Selbstbildung), whose function is a form that unconsciously acts in the intentional relation between two consciousnesses, is constituted as a transmission of spiritual content of the person in the aforementioned intentional relation. This content not only stems from corporeity but also is a bearer of a series of essential meanings of a person.