Against Empathy - Paul Bloom - Review
The title of the book is definitely intriguing if not provoking, how can someone be against empathy? It’s the ability to feel the pain, happiness or other forms of emotions experienced by another fellow human. The definition itself will provide sufficient defence in it’s favour while an argument against the said trait can at best be weak, which was my initial reaction. Having gone through Paul’s impressive online course on psychology, I was curious to understand his counterpoints. When a large section of people have an inclination towards an emotional rather than rational appeal, can empathy prove to be an effective tool towards social equity. Empathy became a topic of discussion after a gun shootout against strangers by a juvenile student in the first decade of the 21st century. A clamorous public outcry with repeated media coverage of the said incident led to the projection of empathy as a critical tool for prevention of crimes thereby creating space for a fair and peaceful comm...