This sounds like a really interesting book. I’ve heard empathy discussed as a factor in psychopathology but never as an explanation for evil. Perhaps there is an implication that those doing evil are also psychopaths but in a limited or lessor way.

This is interesting stuff and if the author’s ideas are subject to test, we may have new ways of thinking about crime and even the proper role of government.

James Pilant

Special Thanks to Blame the Amygdala.

I am about half way through Simon Baron-Cohen’s “The Science of Evil” or “Zero Degrees of Empathy” in the UK, and it is really very good; he manages to explain pretty complex neuroscience terminology in a very palatable way. I am now convinced that understanding empathy is the only way we can really understand the spectrum of human behavior, from the evil to the insanely benevolent. Baron-Cohen talks about the three types of zero-negative persona … Read More

via Blame the Amygdala