Against Empathy: The Case for Rational Compassion Cover
Podcast Mentions

Against Empathy The Case for Rational Compassion

Paul Bloom

New York Post We often think of our capacity to experience the suffering of others as the ultimate source of goodness. Many of our wisest policy-makers, activists, scientists, and philosophers agree that the only problem with empathy is that we don’t have enough of it.

Podcasts 1
Quotes 2
No Stupid Questions

This book argued that empathy is a leading motivator of inequality and immorality, characterizing it as a capricious and irrational emotion that appeals to narrow prejudices and can diminish kindness and love.

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He argues that empathy is one of the leading motivators of inequality and immorality, and that far from helping us to improve the lives of others, empathy is a capricious and irrational emotion that a...

— Episode: 44. Is Empathy in Fact Immoral?

Episode: 44. Is Empathy in Fact Immoral?

This book argued that empathy is a leading motivator of inequality and immorality, characterizing it as a capricious and irrational emotion that appeals to narrow prejudices and can diminish kindness and love.

"

He argues that empathy is one of the leading motivators of inequality and immorality, and that far from helping us to improve the lives of others, empathy is a capricious and irrational emotion that appeals to our narrow prejudices.

Empathy, he writes, is a spotlight focusing on certain people in the here and now. This makes us care more about them, but it leaves us insensitive to the long-term consequences of our acts and blind as well to the suffering of those we do not or cannot empathize with.

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