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altruism |
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altruism (ăl`tr  ĭz`əm), concept in philosophy and psychology that holds that the interests of others, rather than of the self, can motivate an individual. The term was invented in the 19th cent. by the French philosopher Auguste Comte Comte, Auguste (ōgüst` kôNt)..... Click the link for more information. , who devised it as the opposite of egoism egoism (ē`gōĭzəm) ..... Click the link for more information. . Herbert Spencer Spencer, Herbert, 1820–1903, English philosopher, b. Derby. He projected a vast 10-volume work, Synthetic Philosophy, in which all phenomena are interpreted according to the principle of evolutionary progress. ..... Click the link for more information. and John Stuart Mill Mill, John Stuart, 1806–73, British philosopher and economist. A precocious child, he was educated privately by his father, James Mill. In 1823, abandoning the study of law, he became a clerk in the East India company, where he rose to become head of the ..... Click the link for more information. , English contemporaries of Comte, accepted the worth of altruism but argued that the true moral aim should be the welfare of society, rather than that of individuals. altruismEthical theory that regards the good of others as the end of moral action; by extension, the disposition to take the good of others as an end in itself. The term (French, altruisme, derived from Latin alter: “other”) was coined in the 19th century by Auguste Comte and adopted generally as a convenient antithesis to egoism. Most altruists have held that each person has an obligation to further the pleasures and alleviate the pains of other people. The same argument holds if happiness, rather than pleasure, is taken as the end of life. |
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? Mentioned in | ? References in periodicals archive | ||
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| Yet biologists observe that animals and even lower
organisms often behave altruistically. There also is some evidence that foster parents who were
recruited through church were more likely to be altruistically motivated
and more interested in the general welfare of children than those who
were recruited using other methods (Kraus, 1975).
Or if the false claimant had spoken altruistically while the true mother
remained silent, what then? |
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altruistically
