Altruism 336 226107837 2008-07-16T21:18:57Z Kodster 6509190 Reverted 1 edit by [[Special:Contributions/86.151.6.32|86.151.6.32]] identified as [[WP:VAND|vandalism]] to last revision by [[User:Sardanaphalus|Sardanaphalus]]. ([[WP:TW|TW]]) {{for|the ethical doctrine|Altruism (ethics)}} {{wiktionary|altruism}} '''Altruism''' is selfless concern for the [[Quality of life|welfare]] of others. It is a traditional [[virtue]] in many cultures, and central to many religious traditions. This idea was often described as the [[Ethic of reciprocity|Golden rule of ethics]]. Altruism is the opposite of [[selfishness]]. Altruism can be distinguished from feelings of [[loyalty]] and [[duty]]. Altruism focuses on a motivation to help others or a want to do [[good and evil|good]] without reward, while duty focuses on a moral obligation towards a specific individual (for example, [[God]], a [[monarch|king]]), a specific organization (for example, a [[government]]), or an abstract concept (for example, [[patriotism]] etc). Some individuals may feel both altruism and duty, while others may not. Pure altruism is giving without regard to reward or the benefits of recognition. The concept has a long history in [[philosophical]] and [[ethical]] thought, and has more recently become a topic for [[psychologists]] (especially [[evolutionary psychology]] researchers), [[sociologists]], [[evolutionary biologists]], and [[ethology|ethologists]]. While ideas about altruism from one field can have an impact on the other fields, the different methods and focuses of these fields lead to different perspectives on altruism. Researches on altruism were sparked in particular after the murder of [[Kitty Genovese]] in 1964,<ref> Vinciane Despret, ''Naissance d'une théorie éthologique - la danse du cratérope écaillé'', Les Empêcheurs de penser en rond, 1996, p.38 {{fr icon}}</ref> who was stabbed during half an hour, with passive witnesses withholding themselves from helping her. <!--spacing, please do not remove--> ==Altruism in social sciences==<!--Problem of love redirects here--> {{Unreferencedsection|date=July 2008}} {{main|Altruism (ethics)}} If one performs an act beneficial to others with a view to gaining some personal benefit, then it is not an altruistically motivated act. There are several different perspectives on how "benefit" (or "interest") should be defined. A material gain (for example, money, a physical reward, etc.) is clearly a form of benefit, while others identify and include both material and immaterial gains (affection, respect, happiness, satisfaction etc.) as being philosophically identical benefits. This popular issue was nearly "resolved" on the [[NBC]] [[sitcom]], [[Friends]], when Phoebe, who had been trying throughout the episode to prove that she could perform a wholly "selfless act," let a bee sting her and fly away. Her friends reply that, technically, she did not do the bee a favor, though she insists that the bee was happy to sting her. When they inform her of the fact that bees die soon after stinging someone, Phoebe is shocked at the irony and denounces altruism altogether. According to one school of thought, called [[egoism]], people can conceive and exhibit altruistic behaviors, but they cannot sustain altruistic motives. This conclusion rests most firmly on the logic that self-preservation requires possessiveness. The argument succeeds when explored situationally; for instance, as long as one's lungs are breathing in oxygen and exhaling carbon dioxide, he is increasing the toxicity of the air around him, as well as 'hoarding' breath that could have been breathed by someone else. This perspective, however, proves counterintuitive when self-preservation is eliminated from the equation. In other words, if both the good deed and its doer "end" at the same time, then the exchange must technically be considered selfless, because a non-living entity is not able to possess anything, and thus cannot receive anything in return. Some may find this logic disagreeable or counterintuitive as an ideation of altruism, because it seems to require that martyrdom--or fatal sacrifice for a greater cause--be the only actualization of altruism. Psychological egoism can be accused of using [[circular logic]]. For instance, an egoist would not disagree with the following [[syllogism]]: "If a person has willingly performed an act, then he/she has manifested such intent in the form of that act. Fulfillment of one's desires is the primary requisite of satisfaction. Ergo, a person can only willingly perform acts that result in his/her personal enjoyment." This logic is sometimes viewed as circular or presumptuous. Specifically, egoism leans on the assumption that satisfaction is synonymous with self-satisfaction. Such a precept automatically sidesteps counterpoint, however, and remains [[unfalsifiable]]. Thus, until [[empirical evidence]] favors one view or the other, egoism must acquiesce to [[uncertainty]]. Humans are not exclusively altruistic towards family members, previous co-operators or potential future allies, but can be altruistic towards people they don't know and will never meet. For example, some humans donate to international [[Charitable organization|charities]] and volunteer their time to help [[society]]'s less fortunate. It can however be argued that an individual would contribute to a charity to gain respect or stature within his/her own community. Beginning with an understanding that rational human beings benefit from living in a benign universe, logically it follows that particular human beings may gain substantial emotional satisfaction from acts which they perceive to make the world a better place. ===Altruism in morality and politics=== Altruists may be divided in two broad groups {{Fact|date=January 2008}}: Those who believe altruism is a matter of personal choice (and therefore selfishness can and should be tolerated - [[ethical egoism]] even supports egoism as a moral stance, denying altruism any value), and those who believe that altruism is a moral ideal which should be embraced, if possible, by all human beings. A prominent example of the former branch of altruist political thought is [[Lysander Spooner]], who, in ''Natural Law'', writes: <blockquote> "''Man, no doubt, owes many other moral duties to his fellow men; such as to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, care for the sick, protect the defenceless, assist the weak, and enlighten the ignorant. But these are simply moral duties, of which each man must be his own judge, in each particular case, as to whether, and how, and how far, he can, or will, perform them.''"</blockquote> Since [[Aristotle]]'s classical distinction of regimes made in [[Politics (Aristotle)|Politics, III]], altruism is often held to be the kind of ethic that should guide the actions of politicians and other people in positions of power. Such people are usually expected to set their own interests aside and serve the populace. When they do not, they may be criticized as defaulting on what is believed to be an ethical obligation to place the interests of others above their own. [[Ayn Rand]], the founder of [[Objectivism (Ayn Rand)|Objectivism]], argued that altruism is immoral because self-sacrifice is fundamentally incompatible with the objective requirements of human life. She defined sacrifice as the exchange of something of superior value for something of inferior value. Rand argued that the fundamental moral value to a living entity was that entity's own life, whose survival and flourishing depends upon the self-interested pursuit, not selfless renunciation, of values. Without value achievement there would be no living entities. As the universe follows consistent and absolute laws and living beings must take certain actions in accordance with their biological natures to survive, she argued, the moral code cannot be arbitrary but must follow a rational framework.<ref name="rand">Rand, Ayn, with additional articles by Nathaniel Branden. (1964) The Virtue of Selfishness. Signet Book.</ref> Sacrifice according to Rand is the worst kind of moral transgression as it fundamentally undermines the basic principle of a living entity: the optimization toward something better and not something worse. She argued that if altruism as an expression of self-sacrifice were universally and consistently applied, humankind would not remain in existence for long.<ref name="rand"/> It should be noted that altruism, as defined by Rand, Tannehill, and other objectivists, is defined as "the philosophical doctrine which holds that anything which is done out of concern for the welfare of others is good but that it is evil if motivated by concern for self,"<ref>{{cite book|title=The Market for Liberty|pages=13|author=Tannehill, Linda & Morris|isbn=0-930073-08-8}}</ref> in essence declaring that "any action taken for the benefit of others is good, and any action taken for one's own benefit is evil." Rand notes the perverse consequences of such thinking: "An industrialist who produces a fortune, and a gangster who robs a bank are regarded as equally immoral, since they both sought wealth for their own 'selfish' benefit. A young man who gives up his career in order to support his parents and never rises beyond the rank of grocery clerk is regarded as morally superior to the young man who endures an excruciating struggle and achieves his personal ambition. A dictator is regarded as moral, since the unspeakable atrocities he committed were intended to benefit 'the people,' not himself."<ref>http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl201/modules/texts/text%201/rand.html</ref> ===Altruism and deep ecology === Norwegian Philosopher [[Arne Næss]], a proponent of [[deep ecology]], has suggested that the narrow concept of [[ego]]ic self implies that all acts of "doing good" are acts of altruism, whereas, through a larger concept of the [[self-actualisation|self-actualised]] "[[ecological self]]", in which it is the interconnectedness within progressively larger wholes, ultimately incorporating the whole of life (see [[Gaia hypothesis]]), means that our self interest ultimately requires the flourishing and well-being of the whole of life itself. This concept, similar in some respects to the [[land ethic]] of [[Aldo Leopold]], sets the concept of Altruism within the widest possible boundary of moral concern.<ref>Seed, John and Macy, Joanna (et al)(1987) "Thinking Like a Mountain: Towards a Council of All Beings" (New Society Publications)</ref> ==Altruism in ethology and evolutionary biology== {{main|Altruism in animals|Evolutionary ethics}} In the science of [[ethology]] (the study of animal behavior), and more generally in the study of [[social evolution]], altruism refers to behavior by an individual that increases the [[fitness (biology)|fitness]] of another individual while decreasing the fitness of the actor.{{Fact|date=December 2007}} Researchers on alleged altruist behaviours among animals have been ideologically opposed to the [[social darwinism|social darwinist]] concept of the "[[survival of the fittest]]", under the name of "survival of the nicest"&mdash;the latter being globally compatible, however, with [[darwinism|darwinist]]' [[theory of evolution]]. Insistence on such cooperative behaviours between animals was first exposed by the Russian zoologist and anarchist [[Peter Kropotkin]] in his 1902 book, ''[[Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution]]''. Recent developments in [[game theory]] (see [[ultimatum game]]) have provided some explanations for apparent altruism, as have traditional evolutionary analyses. Among the proposed mechanisms are: * Behavioural manipulation (for example, by certain [[parasites]] that can alter the behavior of the host) * [[Bounded rationality]] (for example, [[Herbert Simon]]) * [[Conscience]] * [[Kin selection]] including [[eusociality]] (see also "[[selfish gene]]") * [[Meme]]s (by influencing behavior to favour their own spread, for example, [[religion]]) * [[Reciprocal altruism]], mutual aid * Selective investment theory <ref>Brown, S.L. & Brown, R.M. (2006). [http://www.si.umich.edu/ICOS/Brown-Stephanie.pdf Selective investment theory: Recasting the functional significance of close relationships.] ''Psychological Inquiry, 17,'' 1-29.</ref> - a theoretical proposal for the evolution of long-term, high-cost altruism * [[Sexual selection]], in particular, the [[Handicap principle]] * [[Reciprocity (social psychology)]] ** Indirect reciprocity (for example, [[reputation]]) ** Strong reciprocity<ref>{{cite journal |author=[[Herbert Gintis]] |title=Strong Reciprocity and Human Sociality |journal = [[Journal of Theoretical Biology]] |volume = 206 |issue = 2 |month = September |year=2000 |pages=169&ndash;179 |doi = 10.1006/jtbi.2000.2111 }}</ref> * Pseudo-reciprocity The study of altruism was the initial impetus behind [[George R. Price]]'s development of the [[Price equation]] which is a mathematical equation used to study genetic evolution. An interesting example of altruism is found in the cellular [[slime mould]]s, such as ''[[Dictyostelid|Dictyostelium]] mucoroides''. These protists live as individual [[amoebae]] until starved, at which point they aggregate and form a multicellular fruiting body in which some cells sacrifice themselves to promote the survival of other cells in the fruiting body. Social behavior and altruism share many similarities to the interactions between the many parts (cells, genes) of an organism, but are distinguished by the ability of each individual to reproduce indefinitely without an absolute requirement for its neighbors. Jorge Moll and Jordan Grafman, neuroscientists at the [[National Institutes of Health]] and LABS-D'Or Hospital Network (J.M.) provided the first evidence for the neural bases of altruistic giving in normal healthy volunteers, using [[functional magnetic resonance imaging]]. In their research, published in the [[Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences]] USA in October, 2006,<ref>Human fronto–mesolimbic networks guide decisions about charitable donation, PNAS 2006:103(42);15623-15628)</ref> they showed that both pure monetary rewards and charitable donations activated the [[Mesolimbic pathway|mesolimbic]] reward pathway, a primitive part of the brain that usually lights up in response to food and sex. However, when volunteers generously placed their interests of others before their own by making charitable donations, another brain circuit was selectively activated: the subgenual cortex/septal region. These structures are intimately related to social attachment and bonding in other species. Altruism, the experiment suggested, was not a superior moral faculty that suppresses basic selfish urges but rather was basic to the brain, hard-wired and pleasurable.<ref name="brain">{{cite news |url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/27/AR2007052701056.html |title=If It Feels Good to Be Good, It Might Be Only Natural |publisher=Washington Post |date=May 2007}}</ref> A new study by [[Samuel Bowles (economist)|Samuel Bowles]] at the [[Santa Fe Institute]] in [[New Mexico]], US, is seen by some as breathing new life into the model of [[group selection]] for Altruism, known as "Survival of the nicest". Bowles conducted a genetic analysis of contemporary foraging groups, including [[Australian aboriginals]], native [[Siberian]] [[Inuit]] populations and indigenous tribal groups in Africa. It was found that [[hunter-gatherer]] bands of up to 30 individuals were considerably more closely related than was previously thought. Under these conditions, thought to be similar to those of the middle and upper [[Paleolithic]], altruism towards other group-members would improve the overall fitness of the group. If an individual defended the group but was killed, any genes that the individual shared with the overall group would still be passed on. Early customs such as food sharing or [[monogamy]] could have levelled out the “cost” of altruistic behaviour, in the same way that income taxes redistribute income in society. He assembled genetic, climactic, archaeological, ethnographic and experimental data to examine the cost-benefit relationship of human cooperation in ancient populations. In his model, members of a group bearing genes for altruistic behaviour pay a "tax" by limiting their reproductive opportunities to benefit from sharing food and information, thereby increasing the average fitness of the group as well as their inter-relatedness. Bands of altruistic humans would then act together to gain resources from other groups at this challenging time in history.<ref>Fisher, Richard (07 December 2006) "Why altruism paid off for our ancestors" (NewScientist.com news service) [http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn10750.html]</ref>. Altruist theories in evolutionary biology were contested by [[Amotz Zahavi]], the inventor of the signal theory and its correlative, the [[handicap principle]], based mainly on his observations of the [[Arabian Babbler]], a bird commonly known for its surprising (alleged) altruistic behaviours. ==Altruism and religion== {{Expand-section|date=June 2008}} Most, if not all, of the world's [[religion]]s promote altruism as a very important moral value. [[Islam]], [[Christianity]], [[Buddhism]] {{Fact|date=August 2007}} , and [[Sikhism]] place particular emphasis on altruistic morality, as noted above, but [[Judaism]], [[Hinduism]] and many other religions also promote altruistic behavior. Altruism was central to the teachings of [[Jesus]] found in the [[Gospel]] especially in the [[Sermon on the Mount]] and the [[Sermon on the Plain]]. From biblical to medieval [[Christian traditions]], tensions between self-affirmation and other-regard were sometimes discussed under the heading of "disinterested love," as in the [[Pauline#Religious|Pauline]] phrase "love seeks not its own interests." In his book ''Indoctrination and Self-deception'', Roderick Hindery tries to shed light on these tensions by contrasting them with impostors of authentic self-affirmation and altruism, by analysis of other-regard within creative individuation of the self, and by contrasting love for the few with love for the many. If love, which confirms others in their freedom, shuns propagandas and masks, assurance of its presence is ultimately confirmed not by mere declarations from others, but by each person's experience and practice from within. As in practical arts, the presence and meaning of love become validated and grasped not by words and reflections alone, but in the doing. Though it might seem obvious that altruism is central to the teachings of Jesus, one important and influential strand of Christianity would qualify this. [[St Thomas Aquinas]] in the ''[[Summa Theologica]]'', I:II Quaestion 26, Article 4 states that we should love ourselves more than our neighbour. His interpretation of the Pauline phrase is that we should seek the common good more than the private good but this is because the common good is a more desirable good for the individual. 'You should love your neighbour as yourself' from [[Leviticus]] 19 and Matthew 22 is interpreted by St Thomas as meaning that love for ourself is the exemplar of love for others. He does think though, that we should love God more than ourselves and our neighbour, taken as an entirety, more than our bodily life, since the ultimate purpose of love of our neighbour is to share in eternal beatitude, a more desirable thing than bodily well being. Comte was probably opposing this Thomistic doctrine, now part of mainstream Catholicism, in coining the word Altruism, as stated above. ===Sikhism=== {{Unreferencedsection|date=April 2008}} Altruism is essential to the Sikh religion. In the late 1600s, [[Guru Gobind Singh]] Ji (the tenth [[guru]] in Sikhism), was in war with the [[Moghul]] rulers to protect the people of different faiths, when a fellow Sikh, [[Bhai Kanhaiya]], attended the troops of the enemy. He gave water to the injured, which revived their strength{{Fact|date=January 2008}}. Some of them began to fight again and seemed to cause problems to the Sikh warriors. Sikh soldiers brought Bhai Kanhaiya before the Guru, and complained of his action that they considered counterproductive to their struggle on the battlefield. "What were you doing, and why?" asked the Guru. "I was giving water to the wounded because I saw your face in them," replied Bhai Kanhaiya. The Guru responded, "Then you should also give them ointment to heal their wounds. You were practicing what you were coached in the house of the Guru." In love of altruism, is there any room for hatred or duality? It was under the tutelage of the Guru that Bhai Kanhaiya subsequently founded a volunteer corps for altruism. This volunteer corps till to date is engaged in doing good to others and trains new volunteering recruits for doing the same. It is claimed by some Sikhs that Bhai Kanhaiya's successors who continued the tradition of serving others and who committed their lives to service of the sick and wounded lived longer than usual life spans.{{Fact|date=January 2008}} Bhai Kanhaiya’s successors were not related genetically in order to account for their exceptional longevity. Rather they were volunteers from the Sikh organizations who committed their lives to serve the sick; first they did it themselves and then they recruited others to do the same. All of them defied the recorded longevity norms of the time for a long span of over three centuries.{{Fact|date=January 2008}} Longevity is determined by many factors, freedom from disease and stress are two such factors. The altruists were certainly observed to live calm and tranquil lives. For Sikhs, altruism was made an act of faith by their founders. <!-- This section should continue by quoting altruism-related verses from the holy books of the aforementioned religions --> ==See also== {{MultiCol}} * [[Altruism (ethics)]] * [[Altruism in animals]] * [[Altruria]] * [[Charity (practice)]] * [[Charitable organization]] * [[Egoism]] * [[Empathy-altruism]] {{ColBreak}} * [[Gene-centered view of evolution]] * [[Justice (economics)]] * [[Kin selection]] * [[Misanthropy]] * [[mutual aid]] * [[Philanthropy]] {{ColBreak}} * [[Psychology]] * [[Random acts of kindness]] * [[Reciprocal altruism]] * [[Selfishness]] * [[Solidarity (sociology)]] * [[Tit for tat]] {{EndMultiCol}} ==References== ===Notes=== {{reflist}} ===Bibliography=== <div class="references-small" style="-moz-column-count: 2; column-count: 2;"> *[[Thomas Jay Oord|Oord, Thomas Jay]] (2007). ''The Altruism Reader: Selections from Writings on Love, Religion, and Science'' (Philadelphia: [[Templeton Foundation Press]]). ISBN 978-1599471273 *Batson, C.D. (1991). ''The altruism question''. Hillsdale, NJ: [[Lawrence Erlbaum Associates]]. ISBN 978-0805802450 *Fehr, E. & Fischbacher, U. ([[23 October]] [[2003]]). The nature of human altruism. In ''Nature, 425'', 785{{ndash}} 791. *[[August Comte|Comte, Auguste]], ''Catechisme positiviste'' (1852) or ''Catechism of Positivism'', tr. R. Congreve, (London: Kegan Paul, 1891) *[[Peter Kropotkin|Kropotkin, Peter]], ''[[Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution]]'' (1902) * Oord, Thomas Jay, ''Science of Love: The Wisdom of Well-Being.'' (Philadelphia: Templeton Foundation Press, 2004). ISBN 978-1932031706 *[[Nietzsche, Friedrich]], ''[[Beyond Good and Evil]]'' *[[Pierre-Joseph Proudhon]], ''The Philosophy of Poverty'' (1847) *[[Lysander Spooner]], ''Natural Law'' *[[Matt Ridley]], ''[[The Origins of Virtue]]'' *Oliner, Samuel P. and Pearl M. Towards a Caring Society: Ideas into Action. West Port, CT: Praeger, 1995. * ''[[The Evolution of Cooperation]]'', [[Robert Axelrod]], Basic Books, ISBN 0-465-02121-2 *''[[The Selfish Gene]]'', [[Richard Dawkins]] (1990), second edition -- includes two chapters about the evolution of cooperation, ISBN 0-19-286092-5 *[[Robert Wright (journalist)|Robert Wright]], ''The moral animal'', Vintage, 1995, ISBN 0-679-76399-6. *Madsen, E.A., Tunney, R., Fieldman, G., [[Henry Plotkin|Plotkin, H.C.]], [[Robin Dunbar|Dunbar, R.I.M.]], Richardson, J.M., & McFarland, D. (2006) Kinship and altruism: A cross-cultural experimental study. ''British Journal of Psychology'' *Wedekind, C. and Milinski, M. Human Cooperation in the simultaneous and the alternating Prisoner's Dilemma: Pavlov versus Generous Tit-for-tat. ''Evolution'', Vol. 93, pp. 2686-2689, April 1996. </div> ==External links== *Society **[http://altruists.org/215 What is Altruism?] from Altruists International *Philosophy and Religion **[http://yaleeconomicreview.com/issues/spring2006/altruism.php "Altruism and Utility"] in ''[[Yale Economic Review]]'' **[http://them.polylog.org/3/fcs-en.htm Selflessness: Toward a Buddhist Vision of Social Justice] by [[Sungtaek Cho]] **[http://www.empathy.se/Empathyeng/index.htm Organizes knowledge about empathy/altruism across disciplines] *The Sciences **[http://www.in-mind.org/issue-6/altruism-myth-or-reality.html Altruism: Myth or Reality?] **[http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/altruism-biological/ Biological Altruism] at the [[Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]] **[http://www.humboldt.edu/~altruism/home.html The Altruistic Personality and Prosocial Behavior Institute] at [[Humboldt State University]] **{{cite journal |author=Dharol Tankersley, C. Jill Stowe & Scott A. Huettel |title=Altruism is associated with an increased neural response to agency |journal = [[Nature (journal)|Nature]] |volume = 10 |pages=150&ndash;151 |year=2007 |date=21 January 2007 |doi = 10.1038/nn1833 |url=http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/v10/n2/abs/nn1833.html }} ** [http://peacecenter.berkeley.edu/greatergood/ Greater Good magazine examines the roots of Altruism] at the [[University of California, Berkeley]] ** [http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/inourtime/inourtime_20061123.shtml BBC Radio 4's In Our Time programme on Altruism] (requires [[RealAudio]]) <!--spacing, please do not remove--> {{Philosophy topics}} {{Charity}} [[Category:Evolution by phenotype]] [[Category:philanthropy]] [[Category:Social philosophy]] [[Category:Core issues in ethics]] [[Category:Morality]] [[Category:Virtues]] [[Category:Defence mechanism]] [[ar:الإيثار]] [[bg:Алтруизъм]] [[ca:Altruisme]] [[cs:Altruismus]] [[da:Altruisme]] [[de:Altruismus]] [[et:Altruism]] [[es:Altruísmo]] [[fr:Altruisme]] [[hr:Altruizam]] [[id:Altruisme]] [[it:Altruismo]] [[he:זולתנות]] [[lt:Altruizmas]] [[hu:Altruizmus]] [[ms:Altruisme]] [[nl:Altruïsme]] [[ja:奉仕]] [[no:Altruisme]] [[nn:Altruisme]] [[pl:Altruizm]] [[pt:Altruísmo]] [[ru:Альтруизм]] [[sk:Altruizmus]] [[sl:Altruizem]] [[sr:Алтруизам]] [[fi:Altruismi]] [[sv:Altruism]] [[tr:Diğerkâmlık]] [[uk:Альтруїзм]] [[zh:利他主义]]