Autism, the Double Empathy Problem and Feeling the Emotions of Another Person
This publication is included in the Autistic Autism Scholarship Project. one author of this publication is identified as autistic in the project.
About the autistic author markerFellowes, S. (2025). Autism, the Double Empathy Problem and Feeling the Emotions of Another Person. In Contemporary Philosophy of Autism (pp. 49-66). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003627104-4
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Abstract
While autism is often portrayed as involving a lack of empathy. Increasingly autistic people are advocating for the double empathy problem, which states autistic and non-autistic people are taken as mutually lacking empathy with one another. This chapter argues that the double empathy problem does track an important phenomenon but that it is compatible with autistic people having an internal reduction in one aspect of empathy, namely feeling what another feels. This chapter draws upon my own experience of being autistic to outline how my level of subconscious emotional attunement is extremely low. It is outlined how significant elements of empathy are dependent upon a social context but that this is less applicable to feeling what another feels. Experimental evidence is considered which is taken to support the notion that autistic people do not lack empathy, and it is argued that the evidence does not cover feeling what another feels. It is argued that my limited ability to feel what another feels leaves me disordered. Finally, it is argued that difficulties with feeling what another feels are compatible with being moral.
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