Montaigne on Empathy

Abstract Montaigne’s essay “Of cruelty” explores a phenomenon we would now call empathy, or the ability to “feel into” or share another’s sufferings or pleasures: an experience Montaigne tells us he frequently has himself, even with nonhuman animals. He raises the question of how sympathetic tendencies of this kind can be considered morally virtuous when they spring from natural inclination rather than reason. His treatment of the topic anticipates eighteenth-century texts on sympathy by David Hume and Adam Smith, as well as modern research in psychology and neuroscience. This article examines these connections, and also sets Montaigne’s remarks on empathy into the context of other aspects of his work, suggesting that his approach may offer a foundation for a more subtle understanding of empathy’s role in ethical behavior.