Altruism is selfless concern for the welfare of others. Quality of life is the degree of well-being felt by an individual or group of people It is a traditional virtue in many cultures, and central to many religious traditions. Virtue ( Latin virtus; Greek) is moral Excellence. Personal virtues are characteristics valued as promoting individual This idea was often described as the Golden rule of ethics. The ethic of reciprocity is a fundamental moral Value which " refers to the balance in an interactive system such that each party has both rights and Altruism is the opposite of selfishness. Selfishness denotes the precedence given in thought or deed to the Self, i

Altruism can be distinguished from a feeling of loyalty and duty. This page is about loyalty as faithfulness to a cause For its use in business see Loyalty business model or Loyalty Marketing. Duty (from "due" that which is owing O Fr deu did past participle of devoir Lat Altruism focuses on a motivation to help others or a want to do good without reward, while duty focuses on a moral obligation towards a specific individual (for example, God, a king), a specific organization (for example, a government), or an abstract concept (for example, patriotism etc). In Religion, Ethics, and Philosophy, the phrase good and evil refers to the location of objects desires and Behaviors on a two-way God is the principal or sole Deity in Religions and other belief systems that worship one deity. For the government of parliamentary systems see Executive (government. Patriotism is commonly defined as love of and/or devotion to one's country 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 ethologists. Philosophy is the study of general problems concerning matters such as existence knowledge truth beauty justice validity mind and language Ethics is a major branch of Philosophy, encompassing right conduct and good life Mental health professional A psychologist is a practitioner of Psychology, the systematic investigation of the mind including Behavior, Cognition, Evolutionary psychology ( EP) attempts to explain mental and psychological traits ��such as Memory, Perception, This article provides a list of sociologists and major contributors to Sociology (even if they did not primarily work as sociologists Evolutionary biology is a sub-field of Biology concerned with the origin of Species from a Common descent, and Descent of species Ethology ( from Greek ἦθος ethos, "character" and λόγος logos, "knowledge") is the scientific study of Animal 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,^[1] who was stabbed during half an hour, with passive witnesses withholding themselves from helping her. Catherine Susan Genovese ( July 7, 1935 — March 13, 1964) commonly known as Kitty Genovese, was a New York City

Contents 1 Altruism in social sciences 1.1 Altruism and game theory 1.2 Altruism in morality and politics 1.3 Altruism and deep ecology 2 Altruism in ethology and evolutionary biology 3 Altruism and religion 3.1 Sikhism 4 See also 5 Notes 6 References 7 External links

Altruism in social sciences

Main article: Altruism (ethics)

If one performs an act beneficial to others with a view to gaining some personal benefit, then it isn't an altruistically motivated act. Altruism is an ethical doctrine that holds that individuals have a moral Obligation to help serve or benefit others if necessary at the sacrifice 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.

According to psychological egoism, while people can exhibit altruistic behavior, they cannot have altruistic motivations. Psychological egoism is the view that humans are always motivated by Self-interest, even in what seem to be acts of Altruism. Psychological egoists would say that while they might very well spend their lives benefitting others with no material benefit (or a material net loss) to themselves, their most basic motive for doing so is always to further their own interests. For example, it would be alleged that the foundational motive behind a person acting this way is to advance their own psychological well-being ("good feelings").

The problem (known in philosophy as the "problem of love") arises from an analysis of the human will and is often debated among Thomistic philosophers. The question of free will Thomism is the philosophical school that arose as a legacy of the work and thought of Thomas Aquinas. The problem centers on Thomas Aquinas's understanding that human expressions of love are always based partly on love of self and similitude of being: “Even when a man loves in another what he loves not in himself, there is a certain likeness of proportion: because as the latter is to that which is loved in him, so is the former to that which he loves in himself. ”^[2]

The French philosopher Pierre Rousselot (1878-1915) located the philosophical problem in terms of a pure "ecstatic" or totally selfless love versus an egotistic, more self-interested love, beginning his examination from Aristotle's text (Nicomachean Ethics, Book 9): "The friendly feelings that we bear for another have arisen from the friendly feelings that we bear for ourselves". Nicomachean Ethics (sometimes spelled "Nichomachean" or Ta Ethika, is a work by Aristotle on Virtue and Moral character which ^[3]

Relations between altruist acts and self-interest were a common problem among French 17th century moralists, examined in particular by La Rochefoucauld, as well as Jansenists such as Pascal and Nicole. François VI duc de La Rochefoucauld le Prince de Marcillac ( September 15, 1613 &ndash March 17, 1680) was a noted French Jansenism was a branch of Catholic Gallican thought which arose in the frame of the Counter-Reformation and the aftermath of the Council of Trent Blaise Pascal (blɛz paskal (June 19 1623 &ndash August 19 1662 was a French Mathematician, Physicist, and religious Philosopher Pierre Nicole ( 1625 - November 16, 1695) was one of the most distinguished of the French Jansenists Born in Chartres These authors claimed that all acts of generosity were in fact acts of vanity, a stance later supported by Mandeville. La Rochefoucauld could thus write, in his first Maxim:

"What we call virtues are often just a collection of casual actions and selfish interests which chance or our own industry manages to arrange [in a certain way]. It is not always from valor that men are valiant, or from chastity that women are chaste. "

This classical theory, which gave rise to rational egoism, was harshly opposed by Adam Smith in his Theory Of Moral Sentiments:

"It is the great fallacy of Dr Mandeville's book to represent every passion as wholly vicious, which is so in any degree and in any direction. Rational egoism is the thesis that the pursuit of one's own Self-interest is always rational. Adam Smith ( baptised 16 June 1723 – 17 July 1790) was a Scottish moral philosopher and a pioneer of Political economy. The Theory of Moral Sentiments was written by Adam Smith in 1759 It is thus that he treats every thing as vanity which has any reference either to what are, or to what ought to be, the sentiments of others; and it is by means of this sophistry that he establishes his favourite conclusion, that private vices are public benefits. ^[4]"

Critics of this theory conflating altruism with vanity and self-interest often reject it on the grounds that it's non-falsifiable; in other words, it is impossible to prove or disprove because immaterial gains such as a "good feelings" cannot be measured or proven to exist in all people performing altruistic acts. Falsifiability (or "refutability" is the logical possibility that an assertion can be shown false by an observation or a physical experiment Psychological egoism has also been accused of using circular logic: "If a person willingly performs an act, that means he derives personal enjoyment from it; therefore, people only perform acts that give them personal enjoyment". In Logic, begging the question has traditionally described a type of Logical fallacy (also called petitio principii) in which the proposition This particular statement is circular because its conclusion is identical to its hypothesis (it assumes that people only perform acts that give them personal enjoyment, and concludes that people only perform acts that give them personal enjoyment).

In common parlance, altruism usually means helping another person without expecting material reward from that or other persons, although it may well entail the "internal" benefit of a "good feeling," sense of satisfaction, self-esteem, fulfillment of duty (whether imposed by a religion or ideology or simply one's conscience), or the like. In this way one need not speculate on the motives of the altruist in question.

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 charities and volunteer their time to help society's less fortunate. The definition of charitable organization, and of charity varies according to the country and in some instances the region of the country in which the charitable organization operates A society is a Population of Humans characterized by patterns of relationships between individuals that share a distinctive Culture and Institutions It can however be argued that an individual would contribute to a charity to gain respect or stature within his/her own community.

Altruism and game theory

It may strain plausibility to claim that these altruistic deeds are done in the hope of a return favor. Influenced by the consequentialist perspective of utilitarianism, the game theory analysis of this 'just in case' strategy, where the principle would be 'always help everyone in case you need to pull in a favor in return', is a decidedly non-optimal strategy, where the net expenditure of effort is far greater than the net profit when it occasionally pays off. Consequentialism refers to those moral theories which hold that the consequences of a particular action form the basis for any valid moral judgment about that action Utilitarianism is the idea that the moral worth of an action is solely determined by its contribution to overall Utility, that is its contribution to happiness Game theory is a branch of Applied mathematics that is used in the Social sciences (most notably Economics) Biology, Engineering,

According to some, it is difficult to believe that these behaviors are solely explained as indirect selfish rationality, be it conscious or unconscious. Rationality as a term is related to the idea of Reason, a word which following Webster's may be derived as much from older terms referring to Mathematical formulations of kin selection, along the lines of the prisoner's dilemma, are helpful as far as they go; but what a game-theoretic explanation glosses over is the fact that altruistic behavior can be attributed to that apparently mysterious phenomenon, the conscience. From the time of antiquity field biologists have observed that some organisms tend to exhibit strategies that favor the reproductive success of their relatives even at a cost to their own survival The Prisoner's Dilemma constitutes a problem in Game theory. It was originally framed by Merrill Flood and Melvin Dresher Conscience is a hypothesized Ability or faculty that distinguishes whether our actions are right or wrong One recent suggestion, proposed by the philosopher Daniel Dennett, was initially developed when considering the problem of so-called 'free riders' in the tragedy of the commons, a larger-scale version of the prisoner's dilemma. Daniel Clement Dennett (born March 28 1942 in Boston, Massachusetts) is a prominent American philosopher whose research The Tragedy of the Commons is the title of an influential article written by Garrett Hardin, first published in the journal Science in 1968. The Prisoner's Dilemma constitutes a problem in Game theory. It was originally framed by Merrill Flood and Melvin Dresher

In game theory terms, a free rider is an agent who draws benefits from a cooperative society without contributing. In Linguistics, a grammatical agent is the Participant of a situation that carries out the action in this situation In a one-to-one situation, free riding can easily be discouraged by a tit-for-tat strategy. Tit for tat is a highly effective strategy in Game theory for the Iterated prisoner's dilemma. But in a larger-scale society, where contributions and benefits are pooled and shared, they can be incredibly difficult to shake off.

Cooperative agents interact with each other, each contributing resources and each drawing on the common good. Now imagine a rogue free rider, an agent who draws a favor ("you scratch my back") and later refuses to return it. The problem is that free riding is always going to be beneficial to individuals at cost to society. How can well-behaved cooperative agents avoid being cheated? Over many generations, one obvious solution is for cooperators to evolve the ability to spot potential free riders in advance and refuse to enter into reciprocal arrangements with them. In Social psychology, reciprocity refers to responding to a positive action with another positive action and responding to a negative action with another negative one Then, the canonical free rider response is to evolve a more convincing disguise, fooling cooperators into cooperating after all. Deception (also called beguilement or subterfuge) is the act of convincing another to believe Information that is not true or not the whole truth as in This can lead to an evolutionary arms races, with ever-more-sophisticated disguises and ever-more-sophisticated detectors. In Evolutionary biology, an evolutionary arms race is an Evolutionary struggle between competing sets of co-evolving Genes that develop adaptations

In this evolutionary arms race, how best might one convince comrades that one really is a genuine cooperator, not a free rider in disguise? One answer is by actually making oneself a genuine cooperator, by erecting psychological barriers to breaking promises, and by advertising this fact to everyone else. In other words, a good solution is for organisms to evolve things that everyone knows will force them to be cooperators - and to make it obvious that they've evolved these things. According to this theory, evolution will thus produce organisms who are sincerely moral and who wear their hearts on their sleeves; in short, evolution will give rise to the phenomenon of conscience.

This theory, combined with ideas of kin selection and the one-to-one sharing of benefits, may explain how a blind process can produce a genuinely non-cynical form of altruism that gives rise to the human conscience. From the time of antiquity field biologists have observed that some organisms tend to exhibit strategies that favor the reproductive success of their relatives even at a cost to their own survival

Critics of such technical game theory analysis point out that it appears to forget that human beings are rational and emotional. To presume an analysis of human behavior without including human rationale or emotion is necessarily unrealistically narrow, and treats human beings as if they are mere machines, sometimes called Homo economicus. Homo economicus, or Economic man, is the concept in some Economic theories of man (that is a Human) as a rational, perfectly informed and Another objection is that often people donate anonymously, so that it is impossible to determine if they really did the altruistic act (compare with Kant's affirmation that since motive determines the moral nature of an act, and that none can know for sure which motive was behind an act, therefore it is impossible to know if one single moral act ever existed). Immanuel Kant (ɪmanuəl kant 22 April 1724 12 February 1804 was an 18th-century German Philosopher from the Prussian city of Königsberg

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: 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. Ethical egoism is the normative ethical position that Moral agents ought to do what is in their Self-interest.

A prominent example of the former branch of altruist political thought is Lysander Spooner, who, in Natural Law, writes:

"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. "

Since Aristotle's classical distinction of regimes made in 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. Aristotle (Greek Aristotélēs) (384 BC – 322 BC was a Greek philosopher a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. Aristotle's Politics ( Greek Πολιτικά is a work of Political philosophy. 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, argued that altruism is immoral because self-sacrifice is fundamentally incompatible with the objective requirements of human life. Ayn Rand (ˈaɪn ˈrænd &ndash March 6 1982 born Alisa Zinov'yevna Rosenbaum (Алиса Зиновьевна Розенбаум was a Russian born American Objectivism is a Philosophy developed by Ayn Rand in the 20th century that encompasses positions on Metaphysics, Epistemology, 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. ^[5]

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. ^[5]

Altruism and deep ecology

Norwegian Philosopher Arne Næss, a proponent of deep ecology, has suggested that the narrow concept of egoic self implies that all acts of "doing good" are acts of altruism, whereas, through a larger concept of the 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. Arne Dekke Eide Næss (born January 27, 1912) is widely regarded as the foremost Norwegian Philosopher of the 20th century and is the founder Deep ecology is a recent branch of ecological Philosophy ( Ecosophy) that considers Humankind an integral part of its environment. Id, ego, and super-ego are the three parts of the " Psychic apparatus " defined in Sigmund Freud 's structural model of Maslow's hierarchy of needs is a theory in Psychology, proposed by Abraham Maslow in his 1943 paper A Theory of Human Motivation, which Ecological self is central to the school of Experiential Deep Ecology, which based on the work of Norwegian philosopher Arne Næss, argues that through The Gaia hypothesis is an ecological Hypothesis proposing that the Biosphere and the physical components of the Earth ( Atmosphere 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. The land ethic is a perspective on Environmental ethics first championed by Aldo Leopold in his book A Sand County Almanac. Aldo Starker Leopold ( January 11, 1887 – April 21, 1948) was an American Ecologist, Forester and Environmentalist ^[6]

Altruism in ethology and evolutionary biology

Main articles: Altruism in animals and 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 of another individual while decreasing the fitness of the actor. Altruism is a well-documented Animal behaviour, which appears most obviously in kin relationships but may also be evident amongst wider social groups Evolutionary ethics concerns approaches to Ethics ( Morality) based on the role of Evolution in shaping human Psychology and behavior Ethology ( from Greek ἦθος ethos, "character" and λόγος logos, "knowledge") is the scientific study of Animal Social Evolution is the title of an essay by Benjamin Kidd, which became available as a book published by Macmillan and co London in 1894 Fitness (often denoted w in Population genetics models is a central concept in evolutionary theory. Researchers on alleged altruist behaviours among animals have been ideologically opposed to the social darwinist concept of the "survival of the fittest", under the name of "survival of the nicest"—the latter being globally compatible, however, with darwinist' theory of evolution. Social Darwinism is a theory that competition among all individuals groups nations or ideas drives Social evolution in human societies "Survival of the fittest" is a Phrase which is shorthand for a concept relating to competition for survival or predominance Darwinism is a term used for various different movements or concepts related to a greater or lesser extent to Charles Darwin 's work on Evolution. eVolution is the third Album by eLDee, it was due to be released in 2008 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. Mutual Aid A Factor of Evolution is a book by Peter Kropotkin on the subject of mutual aid, written while he was living in exile in England.

Recent developments in game theory (look into ultimatum game) have provided some explanations for apparent altruism, as have traditional evolutionary analyses. Game theory is a branch of Applied mathematics that is used in the Social sciences (most notably Economics) Biology, Engineering, The ultimatum game is an Experimental economics game in which two players interact to decide how to divide a sum of money that is given to them 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")
• Memes (by influencing behavior to favour their own spread, for example, religion)
• Reciprocal altruism, mutual aid
• Selective investment theory ^[7] - 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^[8]
• 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. Parasitism is a type of symbiotic relationship between Organisms of different Species. Some models of Human behavior in the Social sciences assume that Humans can be reasonably approximated or described as " rational " entities (see Herbert Alexander Simon ( June 15, 1916 February 9, 2001) was an American Political scientist whose research ranged Conscience is a hypothesized Ability or faculty that distinguishes whether our actions are right or wrong From the time of antiquity field biologists have observed that some organisms tend to exhibit strategies that favor the reproductive success of their relatives even at a cost to their own survival Eusociality ( Greek eu: "good" + "social" is a term used for the highest level of social organization in a hierarchical classification A meme (miːm consists of any idea or behavior that can pass from one person to another by learning or imitation A religion is a set of Tenets and practices often centered upon specific Supernatural and moral claims about Reality, the Cosmos In Evolutionary biology and Evolutionary psychology, reciprocal altruism is a form of Altruism in which one organism provides a benefit to another without Sexual selection is the Theory proposed by Charles Darwin that states that certain evolutionary traits can be explained by Intraspecific competition The handicap principle is a Hypothesis originally proposed in 1975 by biologist Amotz Zahavi to explain how Evolution may lead to In Social psychology, reciprocity refers to responding to a positive action with another positive action and responding to a negative action with another negative one Reputation is the opinion (more technically a social evaluation of the public toward a Person, a group of people, or an Organization. George R Price (1922 – January 6, 1975) was an American population geneticist. The Price equation (also known as Price's equation) is a covariance equation which is a mathematical description of Evolution and Natural selection. An interesting example of altruism is found in the cellular slime moulds, such as Dictyostelium mucoroides. Slime Mold is a broad term referring to amoeba-like organisms hence the name slime which feed on microorganisms in decaying vegetable matter hence the name Molds The dictyostelids are a group of cellular Slime molds or social Amoebae When food (normally bacteria is readily available they take the form of individual amoebae 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. Amoeboids are Unicellular lifeforms that mainly consist of Contractile vacuoles, a nucleus, and cytoplasm as their basic structure 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. "NIH" redirects here For other meanings of NIH see NIH (disambiguation. M. ) provided the first evidence for the neural bases of altruistic giving in normal healthy volunteers, using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Functional MRI or functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI is a type of specialized MRI scan In their research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA in October, 2006,^[9] they showed that both pure monetary rewards and charitable donations activated the mesolimbic reward pathway, a primitive part of the brain that usually lights up in response to food and sex. The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, usually referred to as PNAS, is the official journal of the United The mesolimbic pathway is one of the Neural pathways in the Brain that links the Ventral tegmentum in the Midbrain to the Nucleus accumbens 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. ^[10]

A new study by 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". Samuel Bowles (born 1939 is an American Economist and Professor Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Amherst where he taught courses on The Santa Fe Institute (SFI is a non-profit research institute located in Santa Fe New Mexico, United States, dedicated to the study of Complex systems New Mexico ( is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States of America. In Evolutionary biology, group selection refers to the idea that Alleles can become fixed or spread in a population because of the benefits they bestow on groups regardless Bowles conducted a genetic analysis of contemporary foraging groups, including Australian aboriginals, native Siberian Inuit populations and indigenous tribal groups in Africa. Indigenous Australians are descendants of the first known human inhabitants of the Australian continent and its nearby islands. Siberia (Сиби́рь Sibir) is the name given to the vast region constituting almost all of Northern Asia and for the most part currently serving Inuit (plural the singular Inuk, means "man" or "person" is a general term for a group of culturally similar Indigenous peoples inhabiting It was found that hunter-gatherer bands of up to 30 individuals were considerably more closely related than was previously thought. A hunter-gatherer society is one whose primary subsistence method involves the direct procurement of edible plants and animals from the wild Foraging and Hunting 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. The term Paleolithic (or Palaeolithic) (from Greek παλαιός palaios, " Old " and λίθος Lithos, "stone"

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. Monogamy is the custom or condition of having only one mate in a Relationship, thus forming a Couple. 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. ^[11].

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. Amotz Zahavi ( Hebrew: אמוץ זהבי) (born 1928 is an Israeli evolutionary biologist, a Professor Emeritus at the Zoology The handicap principle is a Hypothesis originally proposed in 1975 by biologist Amotz Zahavi to explain how Evolution may lead to The Arabian Babbler ( Turdoides squamiceps) is a Passerine Bird belonging to the genus Turdoides, a genus of Old World babblers

Altruism and religion

Most, if not all, of the world's religions promote altruism as a very important moral value. A religion is a set of Tenets and practices often centered upon specific Supernatural and moral claims about Reality, the Cosmos Christianity, Buddhism , and Sikhism place particular emphasis on altruistic morality, as noted above, but Judaism, Islam, Hinduism and many other religions also promote altruistic behavior. Christianity ( Greek Χριστιανισμός from the word Xριστός ( Christ)is a monotheistic Religion centered on the life and teachings Buddhism is a family of beliefs and practices Sikhism ( IPA: or; ਸਿੱਖੀ sikkhī, IPA:) founded on the teachings of Nanak and nine successive gurus in fifteenth century Judaism (from the Greek Ioudaïsmos, derived from the Hebrew יהודה Yehudah, " Judah " in Hebrew יַהֲדוּת Yahedut For other meanings including people named 'Islam' see Islam (disambiguation. Hinduism is a religious tradition that originated in the Indian subcontinent. 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. Jesus of Nazareth (7–2 BC / BCE —26–36 AD / CE) This article is about the canonical books of the New Testament In the Gospel of St Matthew, the Sermon on the Mount is a compilation of Jesus' sayings epitomizing his moral teaching. The Sermon on the Plain was a sermon given by Jesus of Nazareth according to the Gospel of Luke; it may be compared to the longer Sermon on the Mount 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 phrase "love seeks not its own interests. Christian tradition is a collection of Traditions of practice or belief associated with Christianity. " 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. The Summa Theologica (or the Summa Theologiae or simply the Summa, written 1265 &ndash 1274) is the most famous 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. Leviticus (from Greek Λευιτικός, "relating to the Levites " 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

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. Guru Gobind Singh (ਗੁਰੂ ਗੋਬਿੰਦ ਸਿੰਘ gʊɾu gobɪn̪d̪ sɪ́ŋg ( December 22, 1666 &ndash 7 October, 1708) was A guru (गुरु গুরু is a person who is regarded as having great knowledge wisdom and authority in a certain area and uses it to guide others The Mughal Empire ( Persian and self-designation گورکانی; مغلیہ سلطنت) was an Islamic imperial power which ruled most Bhai Khaniya (1648&ndash1718 was a Sikh of Guru Tegh Bahadur and was requested to establish the Sevapanthi or Addanshahi order of the Sikhs by Guru Gobind Singh He gave water to the injured, which revived their strength. 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. 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.

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.

See also

Altruism (ethics) Altruism in animals Altruria Charity (practice) Charitable organization Egoism Empathy-altruism Gene-centered view of evolution

Justice (economics) Kin selection Misanthropy mutual aid Philanthropy Psychology Random acts of kindness Reciprocal altruism Selfishness Solidarity (sociology) Tit for tat

Notes

References

External links

• Society
  • What is Altruism? from Altruists International

• Philosophy and Religion
  • "Altruism and Utility" in Yale Economic Review
  • Selflessness: Toward a Buddhist Vision of Social Justice by Sungtaek Cho
  • Organizes knowledge about empathy/altruism across disciplines

• The Sciences
  • Altruism: Myth or Reality?
  • Biological Altruism at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
  • The Altruistic Personality and Prosocial Behavior Institute at Humboldt State University
  • Dharol Tankersley, C. The Yale Economic Review (YER established in 2005 is a non-profit quarterly journal of popular Economics which reports on developments in economics to a broad The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP is a freely-accessible Online encyclopedia of Philosophy maintained by Stanford University. Humboldt State University (HSU is the northernmost campus of the California State University system located in Arcata within Humboldt County, Jill Stowe & Scott A. Huettel (21 January 2007). "Altruism is associated with an increased neural response to agency". Nature 10: 150–151. Nature is a prominent Scientific journal, first published on 4 November 1869 doi:10.1038/nn1833. A digital object identifier ( DOI) is a permanent identifier given to an Electronic document.  
  • Greater Good magazine examines the roots of Altruism at the University of California, Berkeley
  • BBC Radio 4's In Our Time programme on Altruism (requires RealAudio)

The University of California Berkeley (also referred to as Cal, Berkeley and UC Berkeley) is a major research university located in Berkeley RealAudio is a proprietary Audio format developed by RealNetworks.

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