The Anti-Empathy Movement & the End of the Iliad

Is empathy a virtue or a weakness? Assistant Professor Max Goldman of Denison University explores this question through the final book of Homer's Iliad , where the grieving King Priam kneels before Achilles, the man who killed his son, and the two men ultimately weep together. Goldman uses this encounter to distinguish between emotional empathy, which can overwhelm judgment, and cognitive empathy, which allows us to understand another person's experience while maintaining emotional boundaries. Rather than looking to the Iliad for a simple answer to a contemporary debate, he brings the ancient text into conversation with it, showing how each can deepen and complicate our understanding of the other.