Yes, Empathy originally had a dash of the idea of The Force from Star Wars in it; that was one reason why Monks were originally Essence.
But most players, coming from D&D nowadays, assume it is more closely associated with Intelligence, since that is the prime stat for casters of that type in D&D; and the closest analogy to D&D's Intelligence is Reasoning.
RDan makes a good point about any change to Reasoning hurting the Dabbler and Bard, as it would hurt Animal Handling, Composition, Delving, Performance, and Social skills, though it would probably also help both those classes' Lore, Perception, Medical, Science, and Technical (including Locks and Traps) skills.