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Culture of Empathy Builder:  Thomas Wartenberg

 

Thomas Wartenberg and Edwin Rutsch: Dialogs on How to Build a Culture of Empathy

Thomas E. Wartenberg, Ph.D., is a philosophy professor at Mount Holyoke College. His main areas of active research are the philosophy of film, philosophy for children, and the philosophy of art. 
 
 
 


 

2013-05-14 - The Limits of Empathy
 Thomas E. Wartenberg, Philosophy professor at Mount Holyoke College - Psychology today

"In the May 20, 2013, issue of The New Yorker, Yale psychologist Paul Bloom agreed with my point. In reviewing a spate of recent books advocating the importance of empathy, Bloom concludes that empathy can only get us so far. He points out that empathy works to move us out of ourselves, but its range is quite limited. We can often feel empathy for specific individuals who have suffered terribly – such as James “Bim” Costello whose picture showing him staggering from the Boston Marathon bomb site was plastered in newspapers and the web. But it’s a lot harder to feel empathy for nameless victims who are only reported in the news media as statistics. This is why Bloom rejects empathy as an adequate grounds for morality."

 

Thomas Wartenberg Responds to The Case Against Empathy by Paul Bloom (In Dialog with Edwin Rutsch)
(The Case Against Empathy' by Paul Bloom - The  New Yorker) 

Thomas E. Wartenberg is a philosophy professor at Mount Holyoke College. His main areas of active research are the philosophy of film, philosophy for children, and the philosophy of art. 

 

 

 

 

(Video Transcriptions: If you would like to take empathic action and create a transcription of this video, check the volunteers page.  The transcriptions will make it easier for other viewers to quickly see the content of this video.)

 

 

 

 Video Bookshelf: Thomas E. Wartenberg
 Thomas E. Wartenberg, professor of philosophy at Mount Holyoke, discusses his most recent book, "A Sneetch is a Sneetch and Other Philosophical Discoveries," which uses the narratives of children's picture books to introduce adults to the basic tenets of philosophical thinking.