EN
Empathy reprezents the important construct, that was marginalized in Czech psychological literature relatively for a long time. This theoretical study deals with development of the empathy concept and informs about signifikant emotional, cognitive, emoctional – cognitive and multidimensional conceptions of empathy, that was elaborated in the social and developmental context. In this study are described basic aspects of two currently considerable conceptions in detail, i.e. M. L. Hoffman´s emotional – cognitive conception and M. H. Davis´s multidimensional conception of empathy.