Empathy as an ethical and philosophical basis for nursing.

This article reconstructs the concept of empathy. Current conceptualizations in nursing, psychology, and lay usage and philosophic approaches are examined. Factors of empathetic situations are defined. Key issues of the object, moral implications, and the locus of empathy are discussed using illustrations from fictional and professional literature. In the proposed concept, a common humanity is the object of empathy, and the empathetic process occurs within individuals. Ability to empathize varies with the broadness of the base with which each individual is able to perceive the common humanity within another. Moral implications include a duty to base actions in empathy.