When discussing my choice of topic. I was throwing around words like empathy and we briefly discussed the source of the word going back to aristotle and his writings on rhetoric, i then went and found complete copies of his writings in online encyclopedias, and actually found it all amazingly interesting. He divides the means of persuasion into three types: Ethos Pathos and Logos, or the 'appeals'.

Pathos is the means of pursuading by appealing to the characters emotions, which its reasonable to assume is the sorce of the words empathy and sympathy having to do with understanding and sharing in someone elses emotions.

Iv always known empathy is highly important in character animation, a real corner stone. But perhaps understanding the word a little more then just 'stirring emotions' may turn up some useful revelations, so ill keep reading.