Against Empathy: The Case for Rational Compassion

by Paul Bloom

What really happens when you deal with other people is that you get information through your senses (you see their facial expressions, you hear what they are saying, and so on), and this information influences what you believe and what you feel. One way it can influence you is by informing you about the mental states of the other person (you believe she is in pain); another way it can influence you is by causing you to have certain feelings (you feel pain yourself). Now, it’s certainly possible that one neural system does both of these things and that understanding and shared feelings have a common source. But it’s also possible that these are two separate processes and, importantly, that you can understand that someone is in pain without actually feeling it.