Empathy, Otherness, and Ethical Life: A Response to Frank Summers

This article attempts to show (a) that empathy is the only way to relate to a subject who is other or different without reducing that other to an object, and (b) that Frank Summers' notion of transcendent empathy is important for all human beings, as our potential selves are both an essential element of our authenticity and an otherness that challenges us to go beyond who we are. We need both transcendent self-empathy and the virtue of courage to actualize our potential selves. I then conclude that the combination of empathy, courage, and self-assertion can be seen as necessary traits of an ethical person.