I want to convince you that humans are, to some extent, natural born essentialists. What I mean by this is we don't… — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
Humans are born with a hard-wired morality: a sense of good and evil is bred in the bone. I know this claim… — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
Philosophers have often looked for the defining feature of humans — language, rationality, culture, and so on. I'd stick with this: Man… — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
Natural selection shaped the human brain to be drawn toward aspects of nature that enhance our survival and reproduction, like verdant landscapes… — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
Humans are social beings, and we are happier, and better, when connected to others. — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
A growing body of evidence suggests that humans do have a rudimentary moral sense from the very start of life. — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
I have two teenage sons, and they're both surviving, thriving, and having a great time, and they're always on social media. — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
Families survive the terrible twos because toddlers aren't strong enough to kill with their hands and aren't capable of using lethal weapons. — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
If Inigo Montoya were around now, he wouldn't need to storm the castle to bring his father's murderer to justice; the police would do… — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
Most of us know nothing about constitutional law, so it's hardly surprising that we take sides in the Obamacare debate the way we root… — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
“Being a good person likely is more related to distanced feelings of compassion and kindness, along with intelligence, self-control, and a sense of justice.… — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
Imagination is Reality Lite - a useful substitute when the real pleasure is inaccessible, too risky, or too much work. — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
One way to make a baby cry is to expose it to cries of other babies. There's sort of contagiousness to the crying. It's… — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
I want to convince you that humans are, to some extent, natural born essentialists. What I mean by this is we don't just respond… — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
The fact that something can be used for good isn't necessarily a knockdown argument for it. — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
Our best hope for the future [...] lies in an appreciation of the fact that, even if we don’t empathize with distant strangers, their… — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
When people want to inspire you to turn against some group of people, they'll often use empathy. When Obama wanted to bomb Syria, he drew our attention to the victims of chemical warfare. And in both of the Iraq wars, politicians said, "Look at the horrific things that are happening." I'm not a pacifist. I think the suffering of innocent… — Paul Bloom Copy Share
I'm very interested in why we do good things, or bad things, and where moral judgments come from. — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image