An exploration of a hermeneutic of empathy for epistemological approaches to design thinking

Abstract

This study turns to Heideggerian phenomenology as a counter to reductive and cognitivist conceptions of empathy and as a response to a provocation towards adding rigour to the concept of empathy within design discourse. Accordingly, it takes the form of an exploration of a Heideggerian hermeneutic of empathy so as to situate empathy in the context of design as a way of making sense of things that is dependent on the being-with of human relatedness. To achieve this aim, the study articulates a provisional framework for empathy through a Heideggerian reconstruction of empathy which it consequently synthesises in relation to theoretical perspectives on design thinking. Objectives for this study are formulated and addressed accordingly. The study outlines epistemological orientations connected to five design thinking sub-discourses derived from academic design discourse, which serve as targets for synthesis in relation to a provisional framework for empathy, which in turn is given direction by Martin Heidegger’s call for a special hermeneutic of empathy. To articulate this provisional framework, the study turns to the account by Lou Agosta of an ostensive reconstruction of empathy on the basis of Heideggerian distinctions for human being of affectedness, understanding, interpretation, and speech. The framework is further nuanced through the synthesis of the Heidegger-inspired concept of sensemaking as conceived by Christian Madsbjerg, and in particular a model for empathy comprising three layers. Each epistemological perspective in design thinking is interrogated in relation to the tenets of the provisional framework, revealing both contributions to the development of a concept of empathy in design and implications for discerning the perspectives themselves. In the course of the study listening, as a component of speech, emerges as a fundamental means of establishing connection with and gathering information from the other.