Review: Baron-Cohen, The Science of Evil (2012)

The Science of Evil: On Empathy and the Origins of Cruelty by Simon Baron-Cohen

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


This is an okay book about how empathy works in the brain. Baron-Cohen is arguing that we should replace the idea of "evil"---which explains nothing about human nature---with the idea of zero empathy. People with borderline, antisocial, and narcissistic personality disorders have what he calls zero-negative empathy, which includes intentional cruelty and has no redeeming characteristics, while people on the autism spectrum have what he calls zero-positive empathy: they don't understand other people's emotions, but have no intent to harm, and their lack of empathy is (often) paired with increased pattern-recognition ability. I'm dubious about this descriptive schema, mostly because I feel like the gap between the autism spectrum and personality disorders is wider than he's trying to make it out to be (I also think he gets a little starry-eyed at the end, when he's talking about teaching empathy to psychopaths), but I think he's right that "zero empathy" is a more useful explanatory tool than "evil."

Three stars.

ETA 2020/03/01 The more I think about it, the less I like Baron-Cohen's ideas. Downgraded to two stars.



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