In the context of this thread, I don't understand why you brought up either sociopaths or autism/Asperger's/etc., especially when you specifically disclaim it i

In the context of this thread, I don't understand why you brought up either sociopaths or autism/Asperger's/etc., especially when you specifically disclaim it in your last paragraph. I think the problem with this conception of empathy is that it seemingly derives solely from the person experiencing it. This type of empathy requires a subconscious background thread to be keeping track of signals which may or may not exist in the external reality. If it is at all possible to know (whether or not such signals exist), it would appear to at least require some communication. Otherwise you are just trying to make inferences off of what you observe, which is probably a near insignificant amount of what the person you are supposedly empathizing with has observed (leaving the question: How do you actually know that the things you are feeling are actually, exactly the same as what the other person is feeling?). I believe this definition of empathy allows people to feel good about themselves, that they are not a sociopath, while still allowing for the possibility that the empath is not actually feeling the same thing as their target.