
Against Empathy
The Case for Rational Compassion
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Narrated by:
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Karen Cass
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By:
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Paul Bloom
About this listen
A controversial call to arms, Against Empathy argues that the natural impulse to share the feelings of others can lead to immoral choices in both public policy and in our intimate relationships with friends and family.
Most people, including many policy makers, activists, scientists, and philosophers, have encouraged us to be more empathetic - to feel the pain and pleasure of others. Yale researcher and author Paul Bloom argues that this is a mistake. Far from leading us to improve the lives of others, empathy is a capricious and irrational emotion that appeals to our narrow prejudices. It muddles our judgment and often leads to cruelty. We are at our best when we are smart enough not to rely on it and draw upon a more distanced compassion.
Based on groundbreaking scientific findings, Against Empathy makes the case that some of the worst decisions that individuals and nations make - who to give money to, when to go to war, how to respond to climate change, and who to put in prison - are too often motivated by honest yet misplaced emotions. With clear and witty prose, Bloom demonstrates how empathy distorts our judgment in every aspect of our lives, from philanthropy and charity to the justice system; from culture and education to foreign policy and war. Without empathy, Bloom insists, our decisions would be clearer, fairer, and ultimately more moral.
Bound to be controversial, Against Empathy shows us that when it comes to major policy decisions and the choices we make in our everyday lives, limiting our empathetic emotions is often the most compassionate choice we can make.
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Story
Masochism is sexy, human, reviled, worshipped, and can be delightfully bizarre. Deliberate and consensual pain has been with us for millennia, encompassing everyone from Black Plague flagellants to ballerinas dancing on broken bones to competitive eaters choking down hot peppers while they cry. Masochism is a part of us. It lives inside workaholics, tattoo enthusiasts, and all manner of garden variety pain-seekers.
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I can't recommend this highly enough
- By K. Reay on 12-10-21
By: Leigh Cowart
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Getting to Zero
- How to Work Through Conflict in Your High-Stakes Relationships
- By: Jayson Gaddis
- Narrated by: Jayson Gaddis
- Length: 8 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Jayson Gaddis is a personal trainer for relationships and one of the world’s leading authorities on interpersonal conflict. For almost two decades, Gaddis has helped individuals, couples, and teams get to the bottom of their deepest conflicts. He helps people see the wisdom in conflict and how to get to zero - how “clean and clear” we feel with others when we have successfully worked through a disagreement. In Getting to Zero, Gaddis shows the listener how to stop running away from uncomfortable conversations and instead learn how to work through them.
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This book should be subtitled: How to manipulate your partner and hope they don’t notice
- By Erich on 08-21-22
By: Jayson Gaddis
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Master of None
- How a Jack-of-All-Trades Can Still Reach the Top
- By: Clifford Hudson
- Narrated by: Clifford Hudson
- Length: 5 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Most people don't need to be experts in their field. Yes, the successful know more than the average person about a particular topic, and they often possess a better-than-average ability with a particular skill set; but not everyone who is successful is an expert, he makes clear. And yet we continue to deeply value the expertise ideal. In Master of None, Hudson turns expertise on its head and shows that by embracing variety and becoming more versatile, anyone can succeed and become more open to different opportunities in life.
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Not great, not bad
- By Brian Sachetta on 01-27-21
By: Clifford Hudson
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How Pleasure Works
- The New Science of Why We Like What We Like
- By: Paul Bloom
- Narrated by: Jeremy Johnson
- Length: 7 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Yale psychologist Paul Bloom presents a striking new vision of the pleasures of everyday life. The thought of sex with a virgin is intensely arousing for many men. The average American spends over four hours a day watching television. Abstract art can sell for millions of dollars. Young children enjoy playing with imaginary friends and can be comforted by security blankets. People slow their cars to look at gory accidents, and go to movies that make them cry.
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Easy to understand, well read.
- By Robert on 06-15-10
By: Paul Bloom
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The Power of Neurodiversity
- Unleashing the Advantages of Your Differently Wired Brain
- By: Thomas Armstrong PhD
- Narrated by: Mike Lenz
- Length: 7 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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From ADHD and dyslexia to autism, the number of diagnosis categories listed by the American Psychiatric Association has tripled in the last fifty years. With so many affected, it is time to revisit our perceptions of people with disabilities. Psychologist and educator Thomas Armstrong illuminates a new understanding of neuropsychological disorders. He argues that if they are a part of the natural diversity of the human brain, they cannot simply be defined as illnesses. Armstrong explores the evolutionary advantages, special skills, and other positive dimensions of these conditions.
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A Step in the Right Direction
- By Rowan Mendoza on 11-03-21
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Mapping the Darkness
- The Visionary Scientists Who Unlocked the Mysteries of Sleep
- By: Kenneth Miller
- Narrated by: James Fouhey
- Length: 11 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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A century ago, sleep was considered a state of nothingness—even a primitive habit that we could learn to overcome. Then, an immigrant scientist and his assistant spent a month in the depths of a Kentucky cave, making nationwide headlines and thrusting sleep science to the forefront of our consciousness. Award-winning journalist Kenneth Miller weaves together science and history to tell the story of four outsider scientists who took sleep science from fringe discipline to mainstream obsession through spectacular experiments, technological innovation, and single-minded commitment.
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Very detailed and interesting
- By Darcy on 01-24-24
By: Kenneth Miller
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Never Alone
- Prison, Politics, and My People
- By: Natan Sharansky, Gil Troy
- Narrated by: Natan Sharansky, Gil Troy, Peter Lownds
- Length: 22 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1977, Natan Sharansky, a leading activist in the democratic dissident movement in the Soviet Union and the movement for free Jewish emigration, was arrested by the KGB. He spent nine years as a political prisoner, convicted of treason against the state. Never Alone reveals how Sharansky's years in prison, many spent in harsh solitary confinement, prepared him for a very public life after his release. As an Israeli politician and the head of the Jewish Agency, Sharansky brought extraordinary moral clarity and uncompromising, often uncomfortable, honesty.
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Fantastic
- By Danna Azrieli on 02-06-21
By: Natan Sharansky, and others
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The Measure of Our Age
- Navigating Care, Safety, Money, and Meaning Later in Life
- By: M.T. Connolly
- Narrated by: Tracie Frank
- Length: 12 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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As tens of millions of Americans are living longer lives, longevity is creating challenges that cut across race, class, and gender. Caregivers help older relatives for “free,” but with high costs to themselves. The institutions built to protect older people—like nursing homes and guardianship—too often harm them instead. And epidemics of isolation and loneliness make older people vulnerable to all sorts of harm. In The Measure of Our Age, elder justice expert and MacArthur “genius” grant recipient M.T. Connolly investigates the systems we count on to protect us as we age.
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A “must read” (or listen)
- By Amazon Customer on 04-11-24
By: M.T. Connolly
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Odd Girl Out
- By: Laura James
- Narrated by: Lucinda Clare
- Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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From childhood, Laura James knew she was different. She struggled to cope in a world that often made no sense to her, as though her brain had its own operating system. It wasn't until she reached her 40s that she found out why: Suddenly and surprisingly, she was diagnosed with autism. With a touching and searing honesty, Laura challenges everything we think we know about what it means to be autistic. Married with four children and a successful journalist, Laura examines the ways in which autism has shaped her career, her approach to motherhood, and her closest relationships.
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Narration is not my favorite
- By Linden on 03-01-21
By: Laura James
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Maybe It's You
- Cut the Crap. Face Your Fears. Love Your Life.
- By: Lauren Handel Zander
- Narrated by: Lauren Ruff, Lauren Handel Zander - introduction
- Length: 8 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Maybe It's You picks up where You Are a Badass leaves off - this no-nonsense, practical manual to help listeners figure out not just what they want out of life, but how to actually get there. In Maybe It's You, life coach Lauren Handel Zander walks listeners through the innovative step-by-step process that has transformed the lives of tens of thousands of her clients, and explains how anyone can achieve amazing things when we stop lying and finally start keeping the promises we make to ourselves.
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Disappointing
- By Alex Hannig on 01-25-18
What did you love best about Against Empathy?
The concept is interesting and well cashed out with experimental results. Bloom provides good reasons to think empathy isn’t always useful (and is usually not useful).How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?
Bloom is not a philosopher and his philosophical arguments are weak in many spots.Good Concept, Well, but not Rigorously, Executed
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Insightful, Helpful, and Fun
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Nothing You Haven't Considered
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will make you reconsider your mental models
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Provocative, witty and persuasive
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read and learn. dont revel in your ignorance.
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Great perspective worth hearing
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Very accessible (almost no jargon) without having to water down the science
Not As Radical As It Sounds But Great Read
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It would be even better if he did not accept political factions as an immutable given. After all, he is shaking their foundations.
His advocacy, and compelling examples, of rational thinking is heartening in the current climate of postmodern dominance.
Expose of ideological error, but not perfect
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It's only too bad that it sounds like Siri is narrating it.
Great book, not so great narration
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