Jamil Zami: The Power Of Empathy

According to Paul Bloom’s perspective, empathy holds enough power to make one forget all reason and make choices based on what tugs the heart strings. While in some cases empathy may inspire one to make choice-based decisions, empathy has the greater power of allowing one to unite with a common cause and their beliefs. Alongside this view, Jamil Zaki reminds the reader that empathy has the innate strength to kindle emotions and create links between people who would otherwise never connect. While it may seem that reason outweighs empathy, empathy and reason walk hand-in-hand, for empathy emphasizes and strengthens reason. In many situations, empathy sparks action, strengthens beliefs, and fortifies relationships and ties to groups and other people.

Zami states that, through demonstrations, readings, and other methods, empathy can create activists and motivate one to align staunchly with a cause. With one reads or watches powerful injustices, their emotions are directly impacted. Through this

As one is able to be emphatic with the situations that affect others, they are strengthening their relationships with people whom they may not otherwise encounter. Although some people may lend their empathy to people with which they are familiar, there are those that consciously look at the lives of others and are able to empathize. Those people are able to create a lasting connection with these people and gain a greater sense of what it is like to be different from others. Although this empathy may seem superficial, it allows people to look at different cause and begin to reason what it would be like if they acted in accordance with these groups. According to Zami, this understanding and ability to reason with other people’s experiences is one of the most powerful sources of empathy and creates a greater moral