157 Quotes by Paul Bloom

It’s hard to pull apart empathy from compassion. What is really clear is that we innately care for other people at least to some extent.

When I write I’ll sometimes say things which are somewhat controversial – not because I’m seeking out controversy for its own sake, but if I don’t have anything to say which is different, why am I bothering to write stuff down in the first place?

I think if we could turn the dial a bit, and try to take what the philosopher Henry Sidgwick called “the point of view of the universe”, and look from above, and realize that we are not special, none of us are, I think it would just cause a transformation.

The effects of Twitter and Facebook and all those things on people’s psychologies is a really interesting question to which nobody knows the answer.

Empathy zooms you in on an individual and, as a result, it’s narrow, it’s innumerate, it’s racist, it’s very biased.

I think there’s some evidence that we’re empathic by nature. There is some evidence from studies of babies and young children that they resonate with the pain of others, and there’s some work by Frans de Waal that other primates also resonate with the pain of others.

For instance, most everyone agrees that a just society promotes equality among its citizens, but blood is spilled over what sort of equality is morally preferable: equality of opportunity or equality of outcome.

I kind of like social media, and I like hearing from people. I don’t like the ugly stuff, but there are some people – smart people – who have a very different perspective, and I’ll get a backlash from them. And this isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Something as important and central and encompassing as empathy can’t be all bad. I think empathy plays a role in intimate relationships, where you might want your partner not just to care about you or understand you but to feel what you feel.