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Into feeling: On the moral art of empathy.

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It's moral in that you do it for good's sake. You do it be decent. You do it for rightness. But it's also an art - because you apply it dexterously, and carefully, and with care and attention - the way that you do any art. You respond moment by moment. As opposed to a skill that you learn once and apply it the same way every time.

Writer Cris Beam considers the politics and potential of empathy - as a personal experience increasingly mediated by digital technology, a skill co-opted by capitalism, and as a kind of 'moral art' with the radical potential to move society beyond neoliberal isolation and towards collective care.

Cris is author of I Feel You: The Surprising Power of Extreme Empathy from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

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Cris Beam

Cris Beam is an author and professor in New York City.

crisbeam.com

 

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