Concepts of empathy, sympathy and compassion are often confused in a variety of literatures. This article proposes a pattern-theoretic approach to distinguishing compassion from empathy and sympathy. Drawing on psychology, Western philosophy, affective neuroscience, and contemplative science, we clarify the nature of compassion as a specific pattern of dynamically related factors that include physiological, cognitive, and affective processes, relational/intersubjective processes, and motivational/action tendencies. We also show that the dynamic nature of the compassion pattern is reflected in neuroscientific findings, as well as in compassion practice. The pattern theory of compassion allows us to make several clear distinctions between compassion, empathy, and sympathy.

中文翻译：

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慈悲模式理论


在各种文献中，同理心、同情心和同情心的概念经常被混淆。本文提出了一种模式理论方法来区分同情心与同理心和同情心。借鉴心理学、西方哲学、情感神经科学和沉思科学，我们阐明同情心的本质是动态相关因素的特定模式，包括生理、认知和情感过程、关系/主体间过程以及动机/行动倾向。我们还表明，同情心模式的动态本质反映在神经科学研究结果以及同情心实践中。同情心的模式理论使我们能够对同情心、同理心和同情心进行明确的区分。