What Empathy is and How It’s Different From Endorsement

What is the difference between empathy and endorsement? Empathy is when you have the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. Endorsement is when you agree with the beliefs or support the actions of another. You can have the ability to understand and share the feelings of another person without necessarily agreeing with their beliefs or supporting their actions. How is this possible?

Picture the Onderonian guerrilla leader Saw Gerrera from Star Wars, for example. He is a man who witnessed the Galactic Empire oppress the people of Onderon, so he formed a militant faction known as the Gerrera Partisans or just simply the Partisans for short. By recognizing that Saw Gerrera and his partisans were in the right for deciding to revolt against the Empire, I am showing empathy for the pain and suffering of the Onderonian people. However, this does not mean that I endorse the existence of the Partisans in any way. Saw Gerrera and his partisans, by all accounts, were terrorists and they did commit war crimes while fighting against the Empire and they do deserve condemnation for being the perpetrators of the atrocities that they are known for having done in the name of resisting tyranny.

In short, I agree with their decision to be rebellious towards an unjust order but disagree with the actual methods that they had put into practice. True understanding towards other people can only occur when we are able to make this distinction. By making this distinction, only then can we truly be responsible for our own actions without being blind to how our actions affect others. I hope this article has clarified any confusion about how empathy and endorsement work. Thank you very much for taking your time to learn something new today.