Occupation: Professor Birth: December 24, 1963
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 s….
Empathy zooms you in on an individual and, as a result, it's narrow, it's innumerate, it's racist, it's very biased..
I think there's some evidence that when it comes to being a doctor or nurse, a police officer or therapist, that empathetic engagement leads to burn-….
Something as important and central and encompassing as empathy can't be all bad. I think empathy plays a role in intimate relationships, where you mi….
Families survive the terrible twos because toddlers aren't strong enough to kill with their hands and aren't capable of using lethal weapons..
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 McGi….
I'm very interested in why we do good things, or bad things, and where moral judgments come from..
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 ha….
I'm really interested in the pleasure we get from stories and the pleasure we get from movies, and certainly the pleasure we get from virtual experie….
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.….
Over the last few years, I've been focusing on questions having to do with the self, and questions having to do with morality. I'm very interested in….
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 ….
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 a….
And empathy is narrow; it connects us to particular individuals, real or imagined, but is insensitive to numerical differences and statistical data..
I love teaching. I wouldn't take a job that didn't include it..
When you start writing things to try to persuade someone who's not already part of your guild or your profession that something is interesting, it fo….
It would be nice if everybody who had something interesting to say about my work could say it politely and civilly, but it doesn't work that way... S….
I think Americans are always going to care more about Americans than about Mexicans..
I think there's some evidence that we're empathic by nature. There is some evidence from studies of babies and young children that they resonate with….
Empty heads, cognitive science has taught us, learn nothing. The powerful cultural and personal flexibility of our species is owed at least in part t….
Even the charities I give to are related to things that touch my life, like the Special Olympics. I'm not fully rational; I'm swayed by my biases and….