Our best hope for the future [...] lies in an appreciation of the fact that, even if we donโt empathize with distant strangers, their lives have the same value as the lives of those we love.
Paul BloomAnd empathy is narrow; it connects us to particular individuals, real or imagined, but is insensitive to numerical differences and statistical data.
Paul BloomI draw a lot from Buddhism, which focuses on compassion and kindness, loving kindness, as they call it, but rejects empathy because it's a poor moral guide. And I think there's a lot of evidence suggesting that they're right.
Paul BloomI 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.
Paul Bloom