Empathy between Art and Design

This short essay delineates the art contest in which the notion of empathy developed between the late 19th and the early 20th century. Explores its meaning as the condition that makes intersubjectivity possible in Husserlian Phenomenology, especially in Edith Stein’s interpretation. It provides clues to understand the reasons that brought design culture focusing on empathy from the late 1990s onward. The increase of the participatory approach in design processes puts intersubjectivity – and therefore empathy – at the centre of any design practice. Since Alice Devecchi, the author of the book in which the essay appears, focuses on empathy or, more precisely, on designing the empathic experience, the text provides comments and clues about the contest, the approach and the outcomes of her work – primarily focusing on the relevance of the arts as a means to increase design knowledge, an approach to research that Devecchi shares with the author, who also was the supervisor of her PhD thesis.