I can’t see why DP’s definition of understanding needs more defence than yours. You are largely disagreeing about the meaning of this word, and I personally find the inclusion of empathy in understanding quite intuitive.
No other definition [of “understanding”] I could find (not even Kant’s pure understanding) implies empathy
“She is a very understanding person, she really empathises when you explain a problem to her”.
“one is able to think about it and use concepts to deal adequately with that object.”
In other words, you can model their behavior accurately.
I don’t think that is an uncontentious translation. Most of the forms of modelling we are familiar with don’t seem to involve concepts.
“She is a very understanding person, she really empathises when you explain a problem to her”.
“She is a very understanding person; even when she can’t relate to your problems, she won’t say you’re just being capricious.”
There’s three possible senses of understanding at issue here:
1) Being able to accurately model and predict.
2) 1 and knowing the quale.
3) 1 and 2 and empathizing.
I could be convinced that 2 is part of the ordinary usage of understanding, but 3 seems like too much of a stretch.
Edit: I should have said sympathizing instead of empathizing. The word empathize is perhaps closer in meaning to 2; or maybe it oscillates between 2 and 3 in ordinary usage. But understanding(2) another agent is not motivating. You can understand(2) an agent by knowing all the qualia they are experiencing, but still fail to care about the fact that they are experiencing those qualia.
I can’t see why DP’s definition of understanding needs more defence than yours. You are largely disagreeing about the meaning of this word, and I personally find the inclusion of empathy in understanding quite intuitive.
“She is a very understanding person, she really empathises when you explain a problem to her”.
“one is able to think about it and use concepts to deal adequately with that object.”
I don’t think that is an uncontentious translation. Most of the forms of modelling we are familiar with don’t seem to involve concepts.
“She is a very understanding person; even when she can’t relate to your problems, she won’t say you’re just being capricious.”
There’s three possible senses of understanding at issue here:
1) Being able to accurately model and predict. 2) 1 and knowing the quale. 3) 1 and 2 and empathizing.
I could be convinced that 2 is part of the ordinary usage of understanding, but 3 seems like too much of a stretch.
Edit: I should have said sympathizing instead of empathizing. The word empathize is perhaps closer in meaning to 2; or maybe it oscillates between 2 and 3 in ordinary usage. But understanding(2) another agent is not motivating. You can understand(2) an agent by knowing all the qualia they are experiencing, but still fail to care about the fact that they are experiencing those qualia.