What is altruism?

altruism is an expression of concern about the well -being of others without any obvious benefit or motivation of an individual who expresses concern. In fact, it is quite difficult to find examples of real altruism in the psychological sense, because many acts that are perceived as altruistic are indeed carrying psychological rewards. In humans, helping others generally leads to a sense of pleasure or satisfaction, suggesting that people have actually developed a biological imperative that forces them to behave in an altruistic way by providing emotional reward.

When people speak of altruism, they usually do not mean altruism in a biological or psychological sense. They refer to the act of kindness or expression of concern that has no significant advantage. For example, someone who donates money for charity can be considered altruistic because it does not use directly by law. On the contrary, someone who builds homes for homeless for school loans is certainly to perform a charity act, but not altruistic. MnOho religion, including Christianity, Buddhism, Judaism and Islam, promotes altruism among their followers and emphasizes the idea that people are not fair unless they can express selfless concerns about others. The ability to help others, even as personal costs, is considered to be an important part of the expression of religious faith for many people.

In biology, you can hear people discussing altruism in the sense of an act that can harm individuals but to advance in a species or social group. Biologists also talk about mutual altruism, which could be better called "cooperation", because this involves the help of another organism, understanding that other creatures return dull. "I scratch your back if you scratch the mine," in other words. Organisms that must not cooperate can be punished and enforcement of mutually beneficial behavior by showing that lack of cooperation has consequences.

ethical theorists also talk about altruism. In ethics, altruism is often described as an imperative, and some of which claim that to survive, it must be an altruistic nature. For example, some ethics promote the use of taxation to raise funds for the purpose of providing health care to all citizens, which benefits members of a low -income company more than members of a high -income company while supporting the health of society as a whole.