Why I’m against empathy §

Metadata §

• Author: Paul Bloom
• Full Title: Why I’m against empathy
• Category:#articles
• URL: https://bigthink.com/the-well/why-empathy-is-bad/

Key takeaways §

• He argues that empathy is victim to all the regular human biases. We tend to feel empathy for those that are similar to us.
• We have moral capacities that are better than empathy
• His suggestion is that we let Rational Compassion guide us instead
  • Rationality: If I am going to help someone, I better think about the best way to do so
  • Compassion: Love, caring.

If we could reconfigure our moral attitudes to be less biased, less parochial, more with our head and less with our heart, we would do better.

Highlights §

• Sometimes what we want from people isn’t a mirror of us, it’s rather, another intelligent, caring, loving person responding to us as a distinct being, and working to make our life better. And I think, sometimes, empathy is exactly what we do not want.