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Culture of Empathy Builder:  Denise Cummins

http://j.mp/1c56Uc4

Denise Cummins and Edwin Rutsch: What's Wrong With Empathy?

Denise Dellarosa Cummins is a retired Adjunct Professor of Psychology and Philosophy, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her research interests include the evolution and development of higher cognition in artificial and biological systems. Her experimental investigations focus on Causal Cognition, Social Cognition, and Moral Cognition.
Denise is an author and contributor to several books including, Good Thinking and The Other Side of Psychology. She wrote an article tiled What's Wrong With Empathy, as a response to 'The Case Against Empathy' by Paul Bloom in The New Yorker.

She writes, "To most of us, the idea that empathy is a good thing is a no brainer. The more we empathize with the plight of others, the more ethical and moral we behave towards them. Yet a number of psychologists and philosophers reject this view....

Some experts believe empathy leads to bad moral judgments and bad social policy... The desire to censure empathy stems from the belief that empathy and other emotions necessarily lead to anarchy and retributive justice, while reason necessarily leads to order and good judgment. Yet sufficient evidence from the annals of human history plainly shows that reason, untempered by empathy, is just as likely to lead to tyranny and genocide as it is to lead to good judgment. When compassion and reason are decoupled, judgment is not improved. Instead, the door is opened to inhumane practices."
Sub Conferences: Science

 

 

2013-10-20 - What's Wrong With Empathy - PsychologyToday.com

"To most of us, the idea that empathy is a good thing is a no brainer. The more we empathize with the plight of others, the more ethical and moral we behave towards them. Yet a number of psychologists and philosophers reject this view....

Some experts believe empathy leads to bad moral judgments and bad social policy... The desire to censure empathy stems from the belief that empathy and other emotions necessarily lead to anarchy and retributive justice, while reason necessarily leads to order and good judgment. Yet sufficient evidence from the annals of human history plainly shows that reason, untempered by empathy, is just as likely to lead to tyranny and genocide as it is to lead to good judgment. When compassion and reason are decoupled, judgment is not improved. Instead, the door is opened to inhumane practices."

 

 

Paul Bloom: Against Empathy & For Reason - Denise Cummins: For Empathy & Reason

 

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