Abstract: In contrast to the focus on characters' twisted inner world in his early works, Ian McEwan began to explore the nature of ethics and morals in the multiple narratives of science, religion, psychology, and literature in the works written during the middle and late stages of his writing career. The common theme in The Black Dogs, Enduring Love, and Saturday appears to be centered around the dialogue, conflict, and competition between rationality and sensibility, or science and emotion, but it is actually intended as a reflection on the nature, purpose, and approach of empathy, a reflection that has conspicuously taken on a new turn and a conceptual revision in the wake of the 9/11 incidents. A re-examination of the concept of empathy in McEwan's fiction may help us clarify the limits of empathy and the relation between empathy and kindness as well, thus developing an understanding of the immanent contradiction in McEwan's concepts of morality and emotion. In the meantime, based on an observation from the study of emotion, his fiction might be perceived as a literary footnote about the concept of empathy, offering some supplement and even revision for the hypothesis of the empathy-altruism connection.

Key words: Ian McEwan, empathy, ethical choice