Altruism exists Day 16 – Learn something new. Today, in the limited amount of time that was unaccounted for by domestic duties, I applied my mind to learning about happiness and altruism. I haven’t been able to take in all that much, in fact only a single chapter of once book but it is a start. The following is just a little of what Mattieu Ricard has to say on the matter: • Belonging has significant bearing on the manifestation of altruism. • When we are happy we are more likely to engage in altruistic acts. • We feel pleasure in attaining our own ends but that is pleasure is short lived when compared to the enduring pleasure attained by exercising kindness to others. • Thomas Hobbes, a 17th century English philosopher, believed humans fundamentally selfish and selflessness was absent from behaviour. • Many evolutionary theorists believed that selfish genes have a higher probability to be transmitted to future generations. • Elliott Sober, contemporary philosopher of science, has shown that when altruistic individuals group together they have evolutionary advantage. • Psychologist David Batson and his team identify the groups of ‘false altruists’ and ‘true altruists’. True altruists account for approximately 15% of western populations. • Maximilian Kolbe was quite some human. If you don’t know who he is give his name a google. I estimate that there are 100 or more who live on my street. If Batson is right then the odds are that there are 15 true altruists living within just a few meters of me. I find that a very reassuring thought.
Posted on: Sat, 29 Jun 2013 22:06:47 +0000
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