- Published: 16 April 2018
- ISBN: 9780099597827
- Imprint: Vintage
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 304
- RRP: $22.99
Against Empathy
The Case for Rational Compassion
- Published: 16 April 2018
- ISBN: 9780099597827
- Imprint: Vintage
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 304
- RRP: $22.99
Brilliant, powerful, and provocative, Against Empathy is sure to be one of the most controversial books of our time
Daniel Gilbert, author of Stumbling on Happiness
Despite a near consensus about the merits of empathy, Paul Bloom shows that it is often just the warm embrace of prejudice – and, like anger, a reliable source of moral confusion. Against Empathy is a thrilling book, and reading it could well make you a better person
Sam Harris, author of The End of Faith
The title may shock, but this is a book of calm reason and expansive compassion. It’s also a pleasure to read: warm, lucid, and thought-provoking
Steven Pinker, author of The Better Angels of Our Nature
I couldn’t put this brilliantly argued book down. Engaging and witty, learned and stimulating, provocative and packed with cutting-edge findings, Against Empathy is sure to start many important debates
Amy Chua, author of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother
I went in a sceptic and emerged a convert … one of the most thought-provoking, and ultimately convincing, books I’ve read in a long time
Maria Konnikova, author of The Confidence Game
A brilliant, witty, and convincing defence of rational generosity against its pain-feeling detractors. Read this book and you will never think about empathy, goodness, or cold- blooded reason the same way again
Larissa MacFarquhar, author of Strangers Drowning
Plaudits to Bloom for speaking up, not only against the overemphasis on empathy, but also in favour of reason. Bloom takes readers on a stimulating tour of current research in psychology, mixed with some older philosophy, that will educate and entertain readers. A wise and important book.
Peter Singer, author of The Most Good You Can Do
Invigorating, relevant and often very funny
The New York Times
A great, provocative book ... that will legitimately change how you think about the world and your own sense of morality
The New York Times
Bloom's point is a good one ... In a time of post-truth politics, his book offers a much-needed call for facts
Economist
A deliberately maverick work – astringent, provocative, often witty and unabashedly against a prevailing culture ... I am staunchly with Bloom
Salley Vickers, Guardian
An interesting and highly topical work of moral philosophy by psychologist … about the ancient conflict between reason and emotion, science and sentiment … an important book
Bryan Appleyard, Sunday Times
Bloom dismantles the argument that empathy is the basis of all morality … Empathy, it turns out, is sentimental, superficial and racist
New Statesman
Compiles evidence from a range of sources to show that empathy can be innumerate, biased, parochial and inconsistent and can push us towards inaction at best and racism and violence at worst
Guardian
Wonderfully humane, lucid and entertaining ... a brave and necessary tract for the times
Telegraph
Paul Bloom’s wonderfully humane, lucid and entertaining demolition of the empathy-worshippers… is a brave and necessary tract for the times
Paul Bloom, Irish Independent
In Against Empathy, Bloom provides a thoughtful, considered, empirically grounded case which challenges many notions that we often accept as good without really thinking them through… Against Empathy is a wonderfully argued, provocative polemic against the trend to see empathy as an unalloyed good
Kenan Malik, New Humanist