https://doi.org/10.1177/0959354320966640 Theory & Psychology 1–20 © The Author(s) 2020 Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions DOI: 10.1177/0959354320966640 journals.sagepub.com/home/tap Husserlian empathy and embodied simulation Heath Williams [GQ: 1] Sun Yat-sen University Abstract In this article, I show that Husserl’s account of empathy supports embodied simulation theory. Both Husserl and embodied simulation accounts of intersubjectivity face the difficulty of accounting for the relations of similarity and difference between self and other, but there is ample neurological data available to the simulationist to establish the relations of similarity and difference, and Husserlian concepts provide a useful interpretive framework for this data. I then respond to the criticism that the theory of embodied simulation involves imitation and is therefore indirect and nonperceptual. Yet, some extra process must distinguish perceptual intersubjectivity from nonsocial perception, and the most direct additional process possible is the interbodily resonances of the kinaesthetic system endorsed by both simulationists and Husserl. Husserl gives an account of kinaesthetic sensations amounting to a phenomenological description of embodied simulation. This article exemplifies phenomenological correlationism whereby cognitive science and phenomenology serve to enlighten one another. Keywords direct social perception, embodied simulation, kinaesthesis, mirror neurons, phenomenology and cognitive science an exact web, every line of direction miraculously the same, but the one worsted, the other silk. —Coleridge, The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge: Vol. 2 [AQ: 1] Phenomenology is the first-person study of the structures of conscious experience, whilst contemporary psychology is the third-person, empirical study of the mind. There is a long history of interaction between the two ranging from hostility to co-operation. The relation between cognitive science and phenomenology has been in question since the early 1980s (Dreyfus & Hall, 1982). More recently, spearheaded by works such as The Corresponding author: Heath Williams, Department of Philosophy, Sun Yat-sen University, Zhuhai campus, 1080 Tang Qi Road, Guangzhou, 510275, China. Email: heathwilliamsphilosophy@gmail.com 0 0 10.1177/0959354320966640Theory & PsychologyWilliams research-article 2020 Article