“It might feel, at least to some of us, that our opinions about issues such as abortion and the death penalty are the products of careful deliberation and that our specific moral acts, such as deciding to give to charity or visit a friend in the hospital—or for that matter, deciding to shoplift or shout a racist insult out of a car window—are grounded in conscious decision-making. But this is said to be mistaken. As Jonathan Haidt argues, we are not judges; we are lawyers, making up explanations after the deeds have been done. Reason is impotent. "We celebrate rationality," agrees de Waal, "but when push comes to shove we assign it little weight.”
Quote by Paul Bloom
Work
Against Empathy: The Case for Rational Compassion
Browse quotes and source details for this work. more
Author
Paul Bloom
Paul Bloom is a renowned cognitive psychologist, born on December 24, 1963. He is a professor at Yale University, where he studies human thinking, decision-making, and judgment. Bloom's research spans multiple areas, including intuition, intuitive thinking, cognitive biases, and moral judgment. more
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