Discuss the Various Theories of Altruism

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The Answer is Many philosophers argue for ethical hedonism, the doctrine that all behavior, no matter how apparently altruistic, is - and should be - designed to increase one's own pleasure or reduce one's own pain. Some theorists explain the motivation to act on another's behalf in terms of empathic distress. Here, helping relieves the negative feelings aroused through empathy with regard to a person in distress. An alternative philosophical position is that people can be genuinely altruistic; Rousseau proposed that humans have a natural compassion for one another and that the only reason they do not always behave compassionately is that society beats it out of them. The evolutionary perspective would argue that we are altruistic because it leads to the protection of our offspring, kin, and ourselves. We do so because it is in our evolutionary "interest." Evolutionary theorists invoke the concept of reciprocal altruism, which holds that natural selection favors animals that behave altruistically if the likely benefit to each individual over time exceeds the likely cost.

Discuss the Various Theories of Altruism

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Discuss the Various Theories of Altruism

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