On Altruism

[atasharuku]

There is compelling evidence that evolution has selected for those variants of "altruism" that manage, however indirectly, to benefit the self. There are, however, many instances in which an attempt at altruism endangers one's well being, or even one's life, flying in the face of the self-preservation instinct. How are we to explain this?

Your

Comments

[deborahkla]

It has to do with reaching outside oneself to touch another, to have an impact, to help another person. Read Viktor Frankl's "Man's Search for Meaning." That will tell you more about the real faith--which is in mankind, and in the very existence of altruism. That is god--there is no "being" that dictates this. Frankl understood this: he survived Auschwitz and the loss of his wife and baby, after all.

In my personal experience, I've found that looking outside myself, to help or support another person, is much more meaningful and rewarding than soul searching or trying to find meaning in some obscure, outside being or ritual.

[atasharuku]

In my personal experience, I've found that looking outside myself, to help or support another person, is much more meaningful and rewarding than soul searching or trying to find meaning in some obscure, outside being or ritual.

The same goes for me. :)

[deborahkla]

Have you read Viktor Frankl? I really believe that his outlook on life is the best. Looking outside yourself to help others and to better mankind is really the way I was raised. Over the last 40 years in the US we've become so self-absorbed (i.e., "I've got mine, the hell with everyone else") and look where it's led us!!

[atasharuku]

I was referring to those instances in which a person sacrifices his or her own life to save the life of a stranger. In that case, I guess it would be a matter of which instinct is stronger: the instinct to preserve the species as a whole, or the drive to survive to propagate one's own DNA.