The Importance of Empathy in Rationality

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I think that one of the most important tricks and strategies is the need to try to empathize with people unlike ourselves. One sense of empathy isn't a matter of feeling what another one feels. I actually think among other things we're not very good at it. So for me to say to a woman in that position, for instance, I could really get to understand and feel what it's like to be in your situation seems arrogant. We should make an effort to try to understand the lives of people very different from us. It makes us better people. And so much of the best literature and movies and books is the exhilaration of trying to understand a world different from your own.

Within every person’s mind there is on ongoing battle between reason and emotion. It’s not always a battle, of course; very often the two can work together. But at other times, our emotions push us toward actions that our reason would counsel against. Paul Bloom is a well-known psychologist and author who wrote the provocatively-titled book Against Empathy: The Case for Rational Compassion, and is currently writing a book about the nature of cruelty. While I sympathize with parts of his anti-empathy stance, I try to stick up for the importance of empathy in the right circumstances. We have a great discussion about the relationship between reason and emotion. Support Mindscape on Patreon or Paypal. Paul Bloom received his Ph.D. in cognitive psychology from MIT. He is currently the Ragen Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Science at Yale University. His research ranges over a variety of topics in moral psychology and childhood development. He is the author of several books and the recipient of numerous prizes, including the $1 million Klaus J. Jacobs Research Prize in 2017. Web site Yale web page Wikipedia page TED talk on The Origins of Pleasure Amazon page Publications Online courses at Coursera Twitter See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.