There is a key difference between empathy and sympathy. Empathy is an intellectual concept whereas sympathy is more of a feeling concept. Empathy is defined as the intellectual identification or vicarious experience of the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of another. It can also be defined as the experience of understanding another person's condition from their perspective. On the other hand, sympathy is the feelings of pity and sorrow for someone else's misfortune. For example, if my friend's mother has just been diagnosed with cancer I can feel empathetic and sympathetic towards her. I can feel empathetic for her even if I have never been in that position. Therefore, I can say "I'm sorry" and "If you need anything I'm here for you." Feeling empathetic can make me expand my knowledge because it causes you to think about if you were in that person's shoes. So, I my mom was diagnosed with cancer I would be cranky and mad. So if the next time I see her and she is rude I can understand that she is going through a lot and she is not being "rude" to me. Along with feeling empathetic, I can also feel sympathetic towards her because I am feeling sorry for her misfortune.
In history, you have to be able to empathize with the people from the past to help better understand the concepts. If you can mentally put yourself into another person's shoes than you can really think through and understand what their problems are. Therefore, I think it is very important to be able to empathize in history just to help yourself get a better understanding of the past.
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