Against Empathy: The Case for Rational Compassion

by Paul Bloom

In a divided world, empathy is not the solution, it is the problem; a source of prejudice, not kindness.

empathy is always perched precariously between gift and invasion.

we don’t live in an age of reason, we live in an age of empathy.

we are not judges; we are lawyers, making up explanations after the deeds have been done.

Here’s to those who wish us well. All the rest can go to hell.

Empathy is like cholesterol, with a good type and a bad type.

people are nicer when they know that their actions are public

“One death is a tragedy; one million is a statistic.”

Larger-scale events can also engage us, so long as we can find identifiable victims in the crowd.

‘Pity is a most dangerous emotion,’

“The very idea that a women can make such a decision—a decision over her own reproduction, over her own body, and over a man’s progeny—contradicts and represents a threat to the idea of a strict father morality.”

I could never take seriously people who refuse to take long flights to see those they love because of worries about contributing to climate change.

fight for those who have been mistreated not because they are like us, but because we are passionate about principles.