Empathy: a bridge between Achille Ardigò and Edith Stein

The article revolves around four key concepts highlighted by Achille Ardigò in The empathy of Edith Stein1, such as the ‘centrality of the empirical person’, ‘the unity of the empirical person’, ‘the medium of corporeality’ and ‘intersubjectivity’. Empathy, as the main element of inter-subjective communication, capable of bringing people out of self-referentiality, will be re-proposed, through the scientific gaze of Ardigò, in the digital society. As Ardigò was an artificial intelligence enthusiast and proposed the concept of empathy in a post-postmodern society, his scheme of empathic experience gains more importance today, in the digital age, where the psycho-physical relationship has totally changed, in its structure and essence as a priority of values. The intention is, therefore, to analyse empathy in digital society through the perspective of Ardigò, in terms of open systems theory.