Empathy does not just happen. In Stein’s phenomenological analysis of empathy, in order for the experience to happen, the precondition for it must be met. And the precondition is the awareness of the other as a living body.
Awareness of the other’s living body is given through outer perception. Because outer perception enables me to also grasp the “hidden” features of any physical thing, the other’s feature as living is also, then, seen. The living body is co-seen in the fulfillment of outer perception.
Of course, outer perception’s power stops there. It does not have the capability of bringing the other’s living body to givenness to oneself. I would need empathy for that.
But the point here is that I need to perceive first the other as a living body in order for empathy, as the perception of the other’s experience, to commence.
Empathy 