Moritz Geiger is known for his work in aesthetics, while his contribution to psychology is rarely cited. There are biographical as well as theoretical reasons for this. However, his project of a Phenomenological Psychology of “pure self-given factuality”, in contrast to Husserl’s idealism of consciousness, deserves to be re-discovered.
Here an early work on empathy is briefly presented and discussed in the context of Geiger’s life and theoretical development, arguing that later ideas are already present in this contribution, although only later they will be developed more deeply.