Altruism and Selfishness q Altruism is the opposite

Altruism and Selfishness

q Altruism, is the opposite of selfishness, is selfless concern for the welfare of others. It is a traditional virtue in many cultures q Altruism can be distinguished from feelings of loyalty and duty q. 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 God or government or an abstract concept (patriotism). 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 and need.

• Altruism figures prominently in Love and compassion, and both are focused on all beings equally. Love and compassion are the qualities of the ultimate source of human happiness. • In the context of ethical discussions on moral action Altruism is a central to the teachings "love seeks not its own interests. “ • Altruism as acting for the good of the other, and sometimes love requires acting for one's own good when the demands of the other undermine overall well-being.

Altruism and Science • Neuroscientists, Jorge Moll and Jordan Grafman (2006), provided the first evidence for the neural bases of altruistic using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Showed that both pure monetary rewards and charitable donations activated pathway reward of mesolimbic, a primitive part of the brain that usually lights up in response to food and sex.

• 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. • when volunteers generously placed the interests of others before their own by making charitable donations, another brain circuit was selectively activated: the subgenual cortex or septal region. The intimately structures related to social attachment and bonding in other species.

• Another experiment funded by the National Institutes of Health and conducted in 2007, suggests a different view, • "that altruistic behavior may originate from how people view the world rather than how they act in it". Nature Neuroscience researchers have found a part of the brain that behaves differently for altruistic and selfish people.

• "people perform altruistic acts because they feel good about it", what they found was that "another part of the brain was also involved, and it was quite sensitive to the difference between doing something for personal gain and doing it for someone else's gain". That part of the brain is called the posterior superior temporal cortex

Altruism and Egotism • Egotism is the motivation to maintain and enhance favorable views of oneself. Egotism means placing oneself at the center of one's world with no direct concern for others, in other terms by the "egoist". • Egotism may coexist with delusions of one's own importance, denial of others. This is a character trait describing a person who acts to gain values in an amount excessively greater than that which he/she gives to others. It is closely related to narcissism, or "loving one's self, " and the possible tendency to speak or write of oneself boastfully and at great length.

Altruism and Empathy • If you feel empathy towards another person you will help them, regardless of what you can gain from it. Relieving their suffering becomes the most important thing. (C. Daniel Batson, 1991). • The motivation of empathy and altruism is that the prosocial evoked by empathy is directed toward the ultimate goal of increasing the welfare of the person in need. • So, empathy motivates other-regarding helping behavior not out of self-interest but of true interest in the well-being of others.

Wisdom • When all is summed up, a man never speaks of himself without loss; his accusations of himself are always believed, his praises never. Michel de Montaigne • Be your character what it will, it will be known; and nobody will take it upon your word. Philip Stanhope, 4 th Earl of Chesterfield • We would rather speak ill of ourselves than not to talk of ourselves at all. François de La Rochefoucauld • It is never permissible to say, I say. Madame Necker • The more you speak of yourself, the more you are likely to lie. Zimmermann • What hypocrites we seem to be whenever we talk of ourselves! Our words sound so humble, while our hearts are so proud. Hare • The more anyone speaks of himself, the less he likes to hear another talked of. Johann Kaspar Lavater • Do you wish men to speak well of you? Then never speak well of yourself. Blaise Pascal

"All men desire only satisfaction. " "Satisfaction of what? " "Satisfaction of their desires. " "Their desires for what? " "Their desires for satisfaction. " "Satisfaction of what? " "Their desires" "For what? " "For satisfaction“ (Joel Feinberg, 1958)

q If a person willingly performs an act, that means he derives personal enjoyment from it q Therefore, people only perform acts that give them personal enjoyment q. In particular, seemingly altruistic acts must be performed because people derive enjoyment from them q. And are therefore, in reality, egoistic.