Bloom has written multiple articles on this topic so the book is meant to be an expansion of his ideas and arguments. Most people take for granted that empathy and more of it is a good thing but Bloom disagrees. He states that compassion is better. He starts by giving an overview of his arguments, then he goes into more detail about the psychology and neuroscience of empathy in further chapters. He also examines empathy in relation to politics, intimacy and evil. Finally, he argues for human rationality.
Bloom contends that, upon analysis, empathy is a bad moral guide because it leads to bias. The bias is usually towards those closest to us or like us which comes into conflict with broader considerations. He shows there are multiple things that can lead our morality.
Bloom does a good job of making arguments against empathy but then he backtracks and says something along the lines of, "...it may not be that bad." So, at the end of the book all of his arguments seem wishy-washy. Other criticisms include the rigorousness of his arguments and not being as concise as he could be. Lastly, I would say that he could have gone deeper into his case for rational compassion. Despite its shortcomings I would still recommend this book. I think Bloom's core argument holds up. Empathy may not be as great as people think it is.
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