Kyle asked:

Is it possible to feel another person's emotions with only having knowledge of their presence, and if
so could their inflicted emotions affect yours?

===========

I think that emotions are part of a person's presence and influence our relationships in many ways.
Sometimes we find we don't like someone when we first meet them, and in part this is because of the
emotional type they are. We know this by their demeanour, their expressions and tone of voice. Of
course, we can be wrong when we get to know people better.

There is some kind of relation between another's emotion and your own. When with a person who
laughs a lot, we tend to laugh too, and we tend not to laugh when a person is suffering. Although, it is
an inconvenient fact about some of us that another's suffering can spark off nervous laughter. But this
is simplistic common sense.

The close relationship between two people is well expressed by Sartre when he says "the other is not
only the one that I see but the one who sees me". Our whole way of being is affected by the other. It
is quite different to be in a room alone to being in a room with another person. Knowledge of
another's presence is not like knowledge of the presence of an inanimate object.

Sartre also acknowledges that the presence of another can alter our perception of what we are doing.
He examples a person looking through a keyhole, interested in what is taking place on the other side
of the door. Suddenly the person realises that there is someone behind him and that he is being
observed. No longer is a he a person interested in what is going on in the room. He is a prying
person, feeling shame at what he is doing.

Rachel Browne