A review by miguelf
Against Empathy: The Case for Rational Compassion, by Paul Bloom

2.0

Imagine this: you are brought into an emergency room dying of a gunshot wound. Your surgeon looks at you and is reminded of her son who died of a gunshot wound as well – according to the anecdote in this book she will be too empathetic and will hence botch the surgery – you’re dead! This is one of the many inane examples given in this book as the author splits hairs and hashes semantics and gives a wide range of examples in the history of psychology to try to make the point that we should rely less on gut feelings. Empathy “distorts our moral impulses”, or so the author contends. Eye rolling will ensue with the reading of this one.