Martin Luther King - Confucius - Meng-Tzu - Richard Dawkins TV - Armand Marie LeRoi - Lewis Thomas - George Eliot - Auguste Comte - Haha Lung - Ayn Rand TV -
Egoism, which is the moving force of the world, and altruism, which is its morality, these two contradictory instincts, of which one is so plain and the other so mysterious, cannot serve us unless in the incomprehensible alliance of their irreconcilable antagonism. Joseph Conrad, cited Zdzislaw Najder, Joseph Conrad: A Life
An Individual has not started living fully until they can rise above the narrow confines of individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of humanity. Every person must decide at some point, whether they will walk in light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness. This is the judgment: Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: What are you doing for others? Martin Luther King
All human beings have a desire to belong and to feel significant and important. And the way to solve this problem is not to drown out the ego but to find your sense of importance in something outside of the self. And you are then able to live because you have given your life to something outside and something that is meaningful, objectified. You rise above this self-absorption to something outside. This is the way to go through life with a balance, with the proper perspective because you’ve given yourself to something greater than self. Sometimes it’s friends, sometimes it’s family, sometimes it’s a great cause, it’s a great loyalty, but give yourself to that something and life becomes meaningful. Martin Luther King
It is the word altruism. Do not do to others what you do not want them to do to you. Confucius, 551-479 B.C.
There is no great joy than to examine oneself and be sincere. When in one’s conduct one vigorously exercises altruism, humanity is not far to seek, but right by him. Meng-Tzu, The Book of Mencius
Altruism, like any other behaviour, must have evolved over time as brains have evolved. Professor Richard Dawkins, The Genius of Darwin II
Selfish genes give rise to altruistic individuals. ibid.
Many religion people find it hard to imagine how, without religion, one can be good, or would even want to be good ... Moral considerations lie hidden behind religious attitudes to other topics that have no real link with morality. Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion p211
But what about the wrenching compassion we feel when we see an orphaned child weeping, an old widow in despair from loneliness, or an animal whimpering in pain? What gives us the powerful urge to send an anonymous gift of money or clothes to tsunami victims on the other side of the world whom we shall never meet, and who are highly unlikely to return the favour? Where does the Good Samaritan in us come from? ibid. p215
There are circumstances – not particularly rare – in which genes ensure their own selfish survival by influencing organisms to behave altruistically. ibid. p216
A gene that programs individual organisms to favour their genetic kin is statistically likely to benefit copies of itself ... The other main type of altruism for which we have a well-worked-out Darwinian rationale is reciprocal altruism. ibid. p217
In ancestral times, we had the opportunity to be altruistic only towards close kin and potential reciprocators. Nowadays, that restriction is no longer there, but the rule of thumb persists. Why would it not? ibid. p221
Hauser also wondered whether religious people differ from atheists in their moral intentions. Surely, if we get our morality from religion, they should different. But it seems they don’t. ibid. p225
Do you really mean to tell me the only reason you try to be good is to gain God’s approval and reward, or to avoid his disapproval and punishment? That’s not morality, that's just sucking up. ibid. p226
Altruism: In a world driven by competition why are some animals altruistic? Termites for instance cooperate relentlessly, building vast mounds on the African plane. Professor Armand Marie LeRoi, What Darwin Didn’t Know, Imperial College London
This highly regimented move by hundreds of thousands of individuals is a typically impressive achievement of the social insects. Bill Hamilton, The Human Animal, interview Horizon, BBC 1977
Animals have genes for altruism, and those genes have been selected in the evolution of many creatures because of the advantage they confer for the continuing survival of the species. Lewis Thomas
I have to determine for myself, and not for other men. I don’t blame them, or think I am better than they; their circumstances are different. I would never choose to withdraw myself from the labour and common burden of the world; but I do choose to withdraw myself from the push and the scramble for money and position. Any man is at liberty to call me a fool, and say that mankind are benefited by the push and the scramble in the long-run. But I care for the people who live now and will not be living when the long-run comes. As it is, I prefer going shares with the unlucky. George Eliot, Felix Holt: The Radical
Social point of view cannot tolerate the notion of rights, for such notion rests on individualism. We are born under a load of obligations of every kind, to our predecessors, to our successors, to our contemporaries. After our birth these obligations increase or accumulate, for it is some time before we can return any service ... This the definitive formula of human morality, gives a direct sanction exclusively to our instincts of benevolence, the common source of happiness and duty. Auguste Comte, Catechisme Positiviste
There’s no such thing as altruism. No such thing as a truly selfless act. We always get paid, one way or another. Haha Lung, Mind Control: The Ancient Art of Psychological Warfare
‘I’m challenging the moral code of altruism.’ Ayn Rand, cited Adam Curtis, All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace I: Love and Power, BBC 2011