The Philosophy and Therapy Podcast · John T Maier

Episode #21: Riana Betzler

·47 min·3 clips

Betzler argues the anti-empathy case “overreaches” by moving from narrow lab tasks to moral conclusions.

John T. Meyer introduces Rihanna Betzler as an assistant professor of philosophy at San Jose State University whose primary research project, The Science and Ethics of Empathy, looks at debates about empathy and its value in contemporary society. He keeps the conversation focused on empathy because it is central to her work and to the episode. The first job is conceptual. Betzler is asked what empathy is and how it differs from sympathy. She treats that distinction as a serious part of the discussion. From there, the conversation turns to the claim that empathy can be biased or politically limited. Betzler says research on those concerns matters. She does not brush aside the psychological evidence. But she argues that the evidence does not support the conclusion that empathy should not play a role in our moral lives. The discussion then widens into the shape of moral theory itself. Meyer asks about the sentimentalist project associated with Hume and Smith. That opens up a broader look at whether moral thought has sometimes been grounded in feeling. Betzler describes a long running debate between sentimentalist and other approaches. She keeps coming back to the question of what kind of morality anti-empathy arguments are actually aimed at. Her concern is that many of those arguments focus on distributive justice and leave out care ethics and interpersonal ethics. She says that matters. It changes what counts as a failure and what counts as a success for empathy. The episode also points to her current work. She describes a paper that brings care ethics and feminist ethics into the picture. That work asks how empathy might still matter even if it has some problems of bias. The conversation stays explanatory throughout. It does not race toward a slogan. It builds a case by moving between definitions, research findings, ethical theory, and practical moral life.

As heard by us

A careful conversation about empathy that keeps the moral question separate from the psychological one.

Rihanna Betzler’s conversation treats empathy with care and real discipline. It starts with the line between empathy and sympathy, then stays with the harder question of whether worries about bias are enough to push empathy out of moral life.

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Why you'd press play

If you want a careful look at empathy, sympathy, and why bias does not automatically end the argument.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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