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Empathy

Physicalism & Empathetic Understanding

Michael Philips argues that the possibility of empathy is incompatible with the idea that the world is physical through and through.

A few years ago I suffered from a short spell of hyperthyroidism. Excessive levels of thyroxin flooded my bloodstream. My energy kicked up in an uncomfortably jerky, speedy, edgy way. I had no patience for anything. I felt like leaping over bank counters and choking tellers who chatted casually with each other, ignoring customers.

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