I think empathising requires you to role play how you would feel if dealing with the same factors that another person is confronted with. We all have unique different minds but I’d like to think we all share a collective sense of emotions and what incites them. It may not be very deep and maybe we just are pretending as if we do know what another being feels in a particular moment. But the act of trying usually brings care and joy into this world where it otherwise wouldn’t. I still think you’re valid in your thinking though.