Paul Bloom Quotes

Quotes about:

• We don't just respond to things as we see them, or feel them, or hear them. Rather, our response is conditioned on our beliefs, about what they really are, what they came from, what they're made of, what their hidden nature is.

  Paul Bloom

  Motivation, Inspiration, Belief

  48 Copy quote

• Families survive the terrible twos because toddlers aren't strong enough to kill with their hands and aren't capable of using lethal weapons.

  Paul Bloom

  Strong, Hands, Weapons

  "Just Babies: The Origins of Good and Evil". Book by Paul Bloom, 2013.

  37 Copy quote

• We are constituted so that simple acts of kindness, such as giving to charity or expressing gratitude, have a positive effect on our long-term moods. The key to the happy life, it seems, is the good life: a life with sustained relationships, challenging work, and connections to community.

  Paul Bloom

  Gratitude, Kindness, Good Life

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• Philosophers have often looked for the defining feature of humans — language, rationality, culture, and so on. I'd stick with this: Man is the only animal that likes Tabasco sauce.

  Paul Bloom

  Men, Animal, Sticks

  Paul Bloom (2011). “How Pleasure Works: Why we like what we like”, p.52, Random House

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• Our best hope for the future [...] lies in an appreciation of the fact that, even if we don’t empathize with distant strangers, their lives have the same value as the lives of those we love.

  Paul Bloom

  Appreciation, Lying, Facts

  14 Copy quote

• Stories turn anonymous strangers into people who matter.

  Paul Bloom

  People, Stories, Matter

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• A religion such as Judaism or Catholicism might survive even if it comes to reject a literal account of God creating man and animals. But it cannot survive the rejection of an immaterial soul.

  Paul Bloom

  God, Men, Animal

  9 Copy quote

• When I write I'll sometimes say things which are somewhat controversial - not because I'm seeking out controversy for its own sake, but if I don't have anything to say which is different, why am I bothering to write stuff down in the first place?

  Paul Bloom

  Writing, Different, Stuff

  "Paul Bloom: The Trouble With Empathy". Interview with Allyson Kirkpatrick, www.guernicamag.com. February 1, 2016.

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• Traditionally, psychology has been the study of two populations: university freshmen and white rats.

  Paul Bloom

  Two, White, Psychology

  "The Next Fifty Years: Science in the First Half of the Twenty-First Century (Toward a Theory of Moral Development)". Anthology edited by John Brockman, May 14, 2002.

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• This enthusiasm [for empathy] may be misplaced. Empathy has some unfortunate features – it is parochial, narrow-minded and innumerate. We’re often at our best when we’re smart enough not to rely on it.

  Paul Bloom

  Smart, Empathy, Enthusiasm

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• What I mean by "empathy" is putting yourself in other people's shoes, feeling what they feel.

  Paul Bloom

  Mean, Shoes, People

  "Paul Bloom: The Trouble With Empathy". Interview with Allyson Kirkpatrick, www.guernicamag.com. February 1, 2016.

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• I argue that we should be kind, we should be compassionate, and we should definitely be reasonable and rational, but that empathy leads us astray.

  Paul Bloom

  Empathy, Be Kind, Arguing

  "Paul Bloom: The Trouble With Empathy". Interview with Allyson Kirkpatrick, www.guernicamag.com. February 1, 2016.

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• The fact that something can be used for good isn't necessarily a knockdown argument for it.

  Paul Bloom

  Argument, Used

  "Paul Bloom: The Trouble With Empathy". Interview with Allyson Kirkpatrick, www.guernicamag.com. February 1, 2016.

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• The irrationality of disgust suggests it is unreliable as a source of moral insight. There may be good arguments against gay marriage, partial-birth abortions and human cloning, but the fact that some people find such acts to be disgusting should carry no weight.

  Paul Bloom

  Gay, People, Abortion

  "To urgh is human" by Paul Bloom, www.theguardian.com. July 21, 2004.

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• I think empathy is really important for pleasure.

  Paul Bloom

  Thinking, Empathy, Important

  "Paul Bloom: The Trouble With Empathy". Interview with Allyson Kirkpatrick, www.guernicamag.com. February 1, 2016.

  4 Copy quote

• Empathy zooms you in on an individual and, as a result, it's narrow, it's innumerate, it's racist, it's very biased.

  Paul Bloom

  Empathy, Zoom, Racist

  "Paul Bloom: The Trouble With Empathy". Interview with Allyson Kirkpatrick, www.guernicamag.com. February 1, 2016.

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• I 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

  Thinking, Views, Special

  "Paul Bloom: The Trouble With Empathy". Interview with Allyson Kirkpatrick, www.guernicamag.com. February 1, 2016.

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• When people want to inspire you to turn against some group of people, they'll often use empathy.

  Paul Bloom

  People, Empathy, Inspire

  "Paul Bloom: The Trouble With Empathy". Interview with Allyson Kirkpatrick, www.guernicamag.com. February 1, 2016.

  4 Copy quote

• If you like somebody, they look better to you. This is why spouses in happy marriages tend to think that their husband or wife looks much better than anyone else thinks that they do.

  Paul Bloom

  Motivation, Husband, Inspiration

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• Because of empathy, stories of the suffering of one person could lead us into a war that could kill millions of people.

  Paul Bloom

  War, People, Empathy

  "Paul Bloom: The Trouble With Empathy". Interview with Allyson Kirkpatrick, www.guernicamag.com. February 1, 2016.

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• It's hard to pull apart empathy from compassion. What is really clear is that we innately care for other people at least to some extent.

  Paul Bloom

  Compassion, People, Empathy

  "Paul Bloom: The Trouble With Empathy". Interview with Allyson Kirkpatrick, www.guernicamag.com. February 1, 2016.

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• My brother is severely autistic, so when I was a kid I spent a lot of time as a teenager in camps and programs for autistic kids. When I went to McGill as an undergraduate, I figured I'd be a therapist working with these kids. The truth is, and I knew this even back then, I'm just not good at this. I'm too empathic to do this sort of thing.

  Paul Bloom

  Brother, Teenager, Kids

  "Paul Bloom: The Trouble With Empathy". Interview with Allyson Kirkpatrick, www.guernicamag.com. February 1, 2016.

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• I think we're going to care more about Americans than Africans. I don't think that's ever going to go away, and I don't think it's ever going to go away that people care more about their families than strangers, and their communities over other communities. But I think it would transform the world in such a good way if we could just acknowledge, at least intellectually, that an African life and an American life are the same.

  Paul Bloom

  Thinking, People, Community

  "Paul Bloom: The Trouble With Empathy". Interview with Allyson Kirkpatrick, www.guernicamag.com. February 1, 2016.

  4 Copy quote

• I think Americans are always going to care more about Americans than about Mexicans.

  Paul Bloom

  Thinking, Care

  "Paul Bloom: The Trouble With Empathy". Interview with Allyson Kirkpatrick, www.guernicamag.com. February 1, 2016.

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• By “empathy,” some people mean everything that is good - compassion, kindness, warmth, love, being a mensch, changing the world - and I'm for all of those things. I'm not a monster.

  Paul Bloom

  Kindness, Mean, Compassion

  "Paul Bloom: The Trouble With Empathy". Interview with Allyson Kirkpatrick, www.guernicamag.com. February 1, 2016.

  4 Copy quote

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