Philosophical and cultural understanding of empathy in the ancient era

The paper presents a discussion of the empathy origination processes in the ancient era. It is noted that despite the general intensification of research activity in terms of studying this phenomenon, modern science is characterized by a lack of philosophical and cultural understanding of empathy. The author points out that its genesis is found in antiquity through the mechanisms of imitation, the mental transfer of personal experiences of an individual to a real or imaginary object. The manifestations of empathy in human society as processes of projection, introjection and identification are considered. The first of them is found in the works of representatives of Greco-Roman philosophy. Reflection of introjection in the works of ancient thinkers has not been revealed, since the main attention of representatives of the period was focused on understanding nature as a whole. It is concluded that empathy is a diverse phenomenon, the origins of which go back to the reflections of ancient Greek philosophers on the essence of human activity and the possibility of projecting an individual's inner experiences onto the object of his creativity, any actions to transform the surrounding space.