EDITH STEIN'S PHENOMENOLOGY OF EMPATHY AND NIGERIA'S RESPONSE TO THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Abstract

This work is an analysis of the Covid-19 pandemic within the context of Edith Stein's Phenomenology of Empathy. For Stein, empathy serves two purposes: to give one access to understand others' experiences and to stimulate the empathizing subject's sensuous reaction to the experiencing subject.When we think of empathy from Stein's perspective and in relation to particular situations, experiences, and reactions from daily living, we discover certain things, which include a partial understanding of the phenomenology (essence) of empathy. In Nigeria, for instance, the handling of the pandemic during the period of the compulsory lockdown was as pathetic and devastating as the virus spread.On the part of the government, certain decisions and actions seemed to have been taken withoutconsciousness of the others (the people). This research recognizes that there were areas where empathic knowledge and action has been felt and implemented during the coronavirus epidemic, as well as areas it was poorly understood and appropriated.The problem is that, with the poor handling of the coronavirus pandemic and the inadequate understanding of empathy and its application by some leaders, agencies, and individuals towards those infected, as well as the vulnerable, especially at the peak of the lockdown, many people lost their lives, in ways that could have been avoided. Adopting Hermeneutic phenomenology as our method, this research argues that adequate knowledge and application of Edith Stein's theory of empathy will influence proper response to human existential challenges, particularly the handling of the Covid-19 Pandemic in Nigeria.