Writer Sally Vickers writes about this in the Guardian, stating that “a sympathetic understanding is an imaginative attempt to sense another’s otherness without purporting to appropriate or own their existential uniqueness. In order for empathy to be effective and a tool for making positive change in the world, it must be practiced with compassion, which is actually caring about the greater good of a community. This isn’t to say that empathy isn’t inherently bad. In his book, he cites how we tend to have more empathy for those who resemble us - which can definitely have dire consequences for society that already favors white cisgender men. To fully understand empathy, in Bloom’s eyes, we also have to consider privilege.įor example, a white woman who has committed a crime is systemically given more empathy than a Black man per our justice system.Įmpathy, like other aspects of our culture, is not free from realities like white supremacy.īloom argues that empathy can be skewed in favor of an individual while ignoring the suffering of the collective - or to put it frankly, understanding where someone is coming from doesn’t always do good. I think that understanding people is important, but it’s not necessarily a force for good. And that’s not exactly what I’m talking about.

“There’s another sense of empathy which is narrower and which has to do with understanding other people. 'I think that understanding people is important, but it’s not necessarily a force for good. Some people take empathy to mean everything good or moral, or to be kind in some general sense.

“I’ve come to realize that people mean different things by empathy. In his book, Bloom argues that empathy itself is not inherently a good tool, only that it has the potential to be. It’s often seen as a bridge to communication and a fundamental pillar in having a moral and just society.īut according to Paul Bloom, a professor of psychology at Yale and author of Against Empathy: The Case for Rational Compassion, the concept of empathy is more complicated than we may assume. The world becomes a more sympathetic place when we intentionally try to understand what another person is feeling. For the most part, we tend to think of empathy as a good thing.

Case against empathy