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Altruism: Actions
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Altruism, defined as an action that benefits the receiver but comes at some cost to the performer, is one of the four types of social interactions that can occur between animals of the same species. Figure 1 summarizes these four interactions. Cooperation, where both actor and receiver benefit, and selfishness, where the action benefits the actor at the expense of the receiver, are by far the most common of the four interactions in nature. Spite, where both actor and receiver are harmed, and altruism are very rare.
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Altruism the doctrine is the view that one's actions ought, generally, to further the interests or good of other people, if necessary to the exclusion of one's own interests. The word was coined by Auguste Compte, the French founder of positivism. Altruism is distinguished from ethical egoism, according to which one's actions ought to further one's own interests.
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Altruism is easier to link to self-esteem for women, since for many women self-esteem is related to a sense of connectedness rather than competition. Ads asking women to be altruistic can easily show how her actions can benefit others, gaining her their appreciation and even love. For example, ads asking for donations to help children in Third World countries emphasize how grateful the children will be, and how the children will write to express their appreciation. Pictures and ad copy personalize the children so they appear as individuals in need of her individual help, giving her a personal connection with a child, implying a closeness akin to that she has with her own children.
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Altruism declares that any action taken for the benefit of others is good, and any action taken for one's own benefit is evil. Thus the beneficiary of an action is the only criterion of moral value—and so long as that beneficiary is anybody other than oneself, anything goes.
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Altruism is sometimes defined very broadly so that it refers to all human behavior not motivated by the self-interest of the agent. In this use of the term, human actions are either egoistic or altruistic—there is no third alternative. However, such a broad definition may not be very useful. One reason is that many human actions have mixed motives—one acts in a way that benefits other people, but does so partly because one expects benefits in return, if not immediately, then at some time in the future. Such behavior is sometimes described as reciprocal altruism: It is not motivated just by self-interest, but neither is it pure altruism whereby the only concern is the interests or well-being of the recipient.
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Altruism is often seen as a form of consequentialism, as it indicates that an action is ethically right if it brings good consequences to others. James Fisher and Bradley Dowdwen, in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, states the altruist dictum as: "An action is morally right if the consequences of that action are more favorable than unfavorable to everyone except the agent." Altruism may be seen as similar to utilitarianism... an essential difference is that the latter prescribes acts that maximize good consequences for all of society, while altruism prescribes maximizing good consequences for everyone except the actor.
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