Book Report

If you're like me I read the title of this book and was immediately curious. How can anyone be against empathy? I chose the book Against Empathy by Paul Bloom because I feel as if I'm on the opposite side of Bloom's argument however it did make me have a different viewpoint on empathy. In the book, Bloom discusses how empathy isn't perfect and it actually has more of a negative effect than a positive one. Empathy is an emotional response that allows humans to feel what other people are going through. This book was more of a persuasive argument throughout today's society. Even though an individual may not realize they're being biased towards a situation they have underlying biased viewpoints that can occur from empathy. I disagree with how he states that you can't put yourself in everyone's shoes because of being biased. I do believe in life people can abuse Empathy. Spirituality and compassion I do believe could be an alternate sources of unintentional bias. This book definitely had me look at situations differently but my viewpoint on empathy has not changed, just enhanced my knowledge of it. I do believe however think empathy can be bad in a situation like giving a child a toy or I pad just so they don't cry. If the individual is portraying empathy in the long term, it will become a negative outcome. The child will believe that then they will get whatever they want. Empathy can manifest itself in physical ways, which is why I feel it was a good book to relate to in our class. It showed that even though you can feel empathy it shouldn't always be shown or it should be shown just in different ways is what this book was focused on. Overall this book was a very educational read that I felt made me gain more knowledge on how empathy can be viewed differently.