mpathy (from the Greek "to make suffer") is commonly defined as one's ability to recognize, perceive and directly feel the emotion of another. As the states of mind, beliefs, and desires of others are intertwined with their emotions, one with empathy for another may often be able to more effectively define another's mode of thought and mood. Empathy is often characterized as the ability to "put oneself into another's shoes", or experiencing the outlook or emotions of another being within oneself, a sort of emotional resonance. ************************** The word 'empathy' is the late translation into English from the German 'Einfühlung'. This last word was coined by the philosopher Robert Vischer (1847-1933). First time Vischer defined even its specific meaning of aesthetic sympathy. This practically is the sentiment, not otherwise definable, which one feels in the face of a work of art. His father Friedrich Theodor Vischer had already made use of the evocative word 'einfühlen' in his studies about architecture, in accordance with the rules of the Idealism.*******************Sympathy exists when the feelings or emotions of one person give rise to similar feelings in another person, creating a state of shared feeling. In common usage, sympathy is usually the sharing of unhappiness or suffering, but it can also refer to sharing other (positive) emotions as well. In a broader sense, it can refer to the sharing of political or ideological sentiments, such as in the phrase "a communist sympathiser". The psychological state of sympathy is closely linked with that of empathy, but is not identical to it. Empathy refers to the ability to perceive another person's emotions, but makes no statement as to how they are viewed. Sympathy, by contrast, implies a degree of equal feeling, that is, the sympathiser views the matter similarly to how the person themselves does. Thus it is possible to be empathic but not sympathetic, by recognizing another's feeling but not being directly affected in the same way.