587. Book Signing for Sparking Empathy: How Engaged Reading Can Open Minds and Inspire Action

Join us as Dr. John Lutz gives an inspiring lecture on the concept of radical empathy as developed in his newly published book Sparking Empathy: How Engaged Reading Can Open Minds and Inspire Action; the lecture will be followed by a book signing.   

In short, this book looks to how recent research in social psychology, neuroscience, and evolutionary biology has established the physiological foundations of empathy and offers close readings of literary works ranging from ancient texts such as Iliad and The Good Samaritan to Shakespeare’s King Lear to more recent works of the past two centuries such as Frankenstein, Sketches from a Hunter’s Album, A Christmas Carol, Giovanni’s Room, and The Ministry of Utmost Happiness. 

By dramatizing the social and political consequences of the presence or absence of empathy in human affairs, literary representations of radical empathy underscore its ability to foster an intersubjective stance that embraces differences in identity and perspective. The tendency of empathy to imagine and feel the particularity of individual experience within a specific situation or context recommends it as a powerful transformational vehicle for promoting social justice, human rights, and dignity. (A limited number of books will be available on-site.)