Altruism – A Philosophical Analysis
Abstract
Altruism is a malleable notion that is understood differently in various disciplines. The common denominator of most definitions of altruism is the idea of unidirectional helping behaviour. However, a closer examination reveals that the term altruism sometimes refers to the outcomes of a helping behaviour for the agent and its neighbours – that is, reproductive altruism – and sometimes to what motivates the agent to help others – that is, psychological altruism. Since these perspectives on altruism are crucially different, it is important to use a clear terminology to avoid confusion. In particular, we show that the notion of altruism used by biologists profoundly differs from the ones used by philosophers, psychologists and economists in cross-disciplinary debates about human altruism.
Key Concepts:
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Reproductive altruism refers to a behaviour that increases other organisms' fitness and permanently decreases the actor's own fitness.
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It is important to distinguish reproductive altruism from cooperation, in which both partners gain direct fitness benefits.
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Reproductive altruism decreases the direct fitness of the altruist and thus its persistence in the course of evolution requests an ultimate explanation.
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Kin selection, the indirect transmission of genes through relatives, is the key process explaining the evolution and maintenance of reproductive altruism.
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Psychological altruism refers to an other-directed motivation to help and increase others' welfare independently of self-directed calculations.
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Psychological altruism is a proximate mechanism; in contrast to reproductive altruism, it may confer direct fitness benefits.
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To avoid misunderstandings, it is important to identify which form of altruism is at stake in interdisciplinary literature about human altruism.
