Philosophy

The Virtue of Scientific Thinking

Scientists have discarded the moral authority that previously accrued to their vocation.

  • Steven Shapin

Sex Is Serious

When it comes to consent, feminists and Christians agree.

  • Elizabeth Bruenig

Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement

One of the largest peaceful protest movements in recent world history.

  • Guobin Yang
  • Ran Liu

“Does Torture Work?” Is an Immoral Question

It’s like asking if slavery is good economic policy.

  • Judith Levine

Marcuse Today

Fifty years later, One-Dimensional Man looks more prescient than its author could have imagined.

  • Ronald Aronson

Zionism and the Right to Culture

Can Israel be both Jewish and democratic?

  • Omri Boehm

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My Body Is a Cage

Mixed Martial Arts as Greek Tragedy

  • Jenny Hendrix

Rethinking Privacy

A little surveillance can do us a lot of good.

  • William H. Simon

Understanding Does Not Require Feeling

Final response: The conclusion that compassion and empathy come as “a package” is almost surely mistaken.

  • Paul Bloom

Attending to Injustice

Righteous anger at injustice is the best guide to good action.

  • Jesse Prinz

Emotional Empathy Is Not the Culprit

What we need is not less empathy but more rationality.

  • Barbara H. Fried

Clouded Moral Judgement

To be moved to action by empathy is to lurch blindly toward who knows what.

  • Sam Harris

Empathy and Medicine

Empathy might make better doctors.

  • Christine Montross

The Landscape of Spirituality

The success or failure of emotional states is context-dependent.

  • Elizabeth Bruenig

Suffering Should Not Be Invisible

The ability to accept suffering is invaluable.

  • Nomy Arpaly

Making Space for Empathy

Rational decision making can have disastrous consequences.

  • Simon Baron-Cohen

Beyond Pain

Empathy works to correct errors in judging actions.

  • Marianne LaFrance

Equivocating Empathy

The cognitive and affective components of empathy cannot be separated.

  • Leonardo Christov-Moore
  • Marco Iacoboni

Empathy Isn’t Something We Choose

Empathy is a problem when our cognitive response fails.

  • Lynn E. O’Connor
  • Jack W. Berry

What Empathy Is Made Of

We shouldn’t dismiss empathy so much as issue the call to examine the nature of its power.

  • Leslie Jamison

Doing the Most Good

Effective altruists rely more on reason than emotion.

  • Peter Singer

Against Empathy

Most people see the benefits of empathy as too obvious to require justification.

  • Paul Bloom
with responses from
  • Peter Singer
  • Leslie Jamison
  • Lynn E. O'Connor & Jack W. Berry
  • Leonardo Christov-Moore & Marco Iacoboni
  • Marianne LaFrance
  • Simon Baron-Cohen
  • Nomy Arpaly
  • Elizabeth Bruenig
  • Christine Montross
  • Sam Harris
  • Barbara H. Fried
  • Jesse Prinz

When Protesting Israel Becomes Hating Jews

History has shown time and again that it is not possible to dehumanize an enemy while treating their cousins, aunts, and uncles with respect. 

  • Jason Stanley

Measure Words

A cross-cultural reading group in Beijing

  • Drew Calvert
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