Date of Lecture: September 24, 2015
About the Speaker: Paul Bloom is Brooks and Suzanne Ragen Professor of Psychology and chair of the Cognitive Science Program at Yale University. His research explores how children and adults understand the physical and social world, with special focus on morality, religion, fiction, and art. He is the author or editor of six books, including “Just Babies: The Origins of Good and Evil” and “How Pleasure Works: The New Science of Why We Like What We Like.”
About the Talk: Bloom draws upon his research into psychopathy, criminal behavior, charitable giving, infant cognition, cognitive neuroscience and Buddhist meditation practices to argue that empathy is a poor moral guide and we are better off without it.
His talk is one of the Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity.
Watch the lecture below or download it free from iTunes U.