Definition
Altruism, in general, refers to actions that take other human beings into consideration: action concerned with the well-being of others. The concept was brought into the social sciences by Auguste Comte (1798–1857) in the mid-nineteenth century as the antonym of selfishness. The term derives from the Latin words “alter” and “other.” In Comte’s often restated view, individuals have two distinct motives: egoism and altruism; the latter for him is “the most important sociological question.” Another classic of the formulations of altruism definition is the forefather of sociology, Émile Durkheim (1858–1917). In his early work The Division of Labor in Society, Durkheim argues that wherever there are communities, there is altruism since communities exhibit solidarity. He linked egoism and altruism to the deepening of the societal division of labor, the transformation from mechanical to organic solidarity. Likewise, he linked egoism and altruism to the maintenance of moral...
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References
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Further Reading
Fehr, E., & Fischbacher, U. (2003). The nature of human altruism. Nature, 425, 785–791.
Field, A. J. (2004). Altruistically inclined? The behavioral sciences, evolutionary theory and the origins of reciprocity. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Gintis, H. (2003). Solving the puzzle of prosociality. Rationality and Society, 15(2), 155–187.
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Kohn, A. (1990). The brighter side of human nature. Altruism & empathy in everyday life. New York: Basic Books.
Piliavin, J. A., & Charng, H. W. (1990). Altruism: A review of recent theory and research. Annual Review of Sociology, 16, 27–65.
Rushton, J. P., & Sorrentino, R. M. (Eds.). (1981). Altruism and helping behavior: Social, personality and developmental perspectives. Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Seidler, V. J. (1992). Rescue, righteousness, and morality. In P. M. Oliner et al. (Eds.), Embracing the other. Philosophical, psychological, and historical perspectives on altruism (pp. 48–65). New York: New York University Press.
Sober, E., & Wilson, D. S. (1998). Unto others. The evolution and psychology of unselfish behavior. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
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Pessi, A.B. (2020). Altruism. In: List, R., Anheier, H., Toepler, S. (eds) International Encyclopedia of Civil Society. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-99675-2_133-1
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