Against Empathy: The Case for Rational Compassion

by Paul Bloom

But the situations in everyday life force us to confront the problem, to balance self versus family versus stranger. If you’re mathematically inclined, you can think of it in terms of the following formula: Self + Close People + Strangers = 100% Now fill in the numbers. Someone who had Self = 100% would be a pure egoist, and would surely be a monster; someone who had Self = 0% would be some sort of crazy saint. Throughout history, many people have had Strangers = 0%; in my last book, Just Babies, I argued that this is the default mode of human nature. But I can’t imagine that many people have it now; few people would let a stranger die—at least someone in front of them—if a rescue cost them very little. So I know what the numbers shouldn’t be. But I don’t know what they are, or how one could find out, or even whether this is the best way to frame the problem.