Paul Bloom
Paul Bloom
Paul Bloomis a Canadian American professor of psychology and cognitive science at Yale University. His research explores how children and adults understand the physical and social world, with special focus on language, morality, religion, fiction, and art...
NationalityCanadian
ProfessionPsychologist
Date of Birth24 December 1963
CountryCanada
born came convince hear hidden humans natural nature respond response
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 to things as we see them or feel them or hear them. Rather, our response is conditioned on our beliefs, about what they really are, what they came from, what they're made of, what their hidden nature is.
characters comedies difficulty movies reaction rely vicarious watch
I have my own difficulty with movies in which the suffering of the characters is too real, and many find it difficult to watch comedies that rely too heavily on embarrassment; the vicarious reaction to this is too unpleasant.
accept avoid babies begin bread claim consciousness eagerly hard ignorant impression large might popular spark wonderful
A sympathetic parent might see the spark of consciousness in a baby's large eyes and eagerly accept the popular claim that babies are wonderful learners, but it is hard to avoid the impression that they begin as ignorant as bread loaves.
accept brains clash consciousness exists free inherent insist moral myriad notions reject scholars science smaller
More-radical scholars insist that an inherent clash exists between science and our long-held conceptions about consciousness and moral agency: if you accept that our brains are a myriad of smaller components, you must reject such notions as character, praise, blame, and free will.
babies beings notions seen taught
Morality is often seen as an innovation, like agriculture and writing. From this perspective, babies are pint-sized psychopaths, self-interested beings who need to be taught moral notions such as the wrongness of harming another person.
degrade enhance innate
We are naturally moral beings, but our environments can enhance - or, sadly, degrade - this innate moral sense.
imagination substitute useful work
Imagination is Reality Lite - a useful substitute when the real pleasure is inaccessible, too risky, or too much work.
imagining
I think what a lot of fiction is, is the imagining of the worst so as to prepare ourselves.
humans
Humans are social beings, and we are happier, and better, when connected to others.
claim flat good religion
Any simple claim that you need religion to be good is flat wrong.
body evidence growing humans life
A growing body of evidence suggests that humans do have a rudimentary moral sense from the very start of life.
bodies bones harder turning
We can imagine our bodies being destroyed, our brains ceasing to function, our bones turning to dust, but it is harder - some would say impossible - to imagine the end of our very existence.
advantage amazing human kids pilot proven source subject tremendous
Having kids has proven to be this amazing - for me, this amazing source of ideas of anecdotes, of examples, I can test my own kids without human subject permission, so they pilot - I pilot my ideas on them. And so it is a tremendous advantage to have kids if you're going to be a developmental psychologist.
debate hardly obamacare red root sides surprising
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 for the Red Sox or the Yankees. Loyalty to the team is what matters.