Against Empathy

“The Power of Empathy”

Empathy – the capacity to experience life as another person experiences it – is often touted as the primary agent of morality and as humanity’s greatest tool for bettering the world. The cry for “more empathy” arises in the face of violence, oppression, and other ills. If “your pain becomes my pain,” the argument goes, people will identify with and help one another. The modern tendency to exalt empathy coincides with a number of related beliefs, including the notion that humans aren’t rational beings and the idea that reasoning applies only to moral decision making after the fact. Emotion does affect decision making, but it doesn’t need to prevent or get ahead of rational thought. People can recognize that racial discrimination is wrong, even if some find that it may feel instinctive. Most people acknowledge that you don’t need to empathize with a drowning child to attempt a rescue. Moral action can – and often does – stem from more than just empathy.

Empathy’s Limitations

Empathy can generate positive actions, and acting empathetically certainly feels good. Yet empathy’s weaknesses outweigh its strengths...