Altruism

Altruism is the attitude that consists of according one's regards to the Other (alter in Latin), personally or globally, as a principle of one's choices and actions. Opposed to egoism, it implies sincere and unselfish concern for the well-being of others, expressed practically.

Its most current use is referred to interhuman relationships; in this sense, it can be attached to humanism. Altruism is indeed an extremely significant notion of great concrete consequences for the human societies.

There shouldn't be confusion between the principle of altruism and the one of simple respect of the Other: Being respectful doesn't necessarily imply taking under consideration the Other's welfare for the definition of one's behavior.

Another possible erroneous identification may occur between altruism and the ethical attitude founded on the principle of reciprocity, as expressed negatively already in the Hebraïc Talmud of Babylon (Shabbat): “Don't do to your fellow man what you would detest he did to you,” and positively in the Christian New Testament (Luke 5:31; Matthew 7:12): “What you would like people do for you, do it in the same way for them.”

Instead of these principles of “reasonable justice,” Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) thought that human actions should rather follow the principle of “natural goodness”: “Do your own good with the least possible harm for the Other.” However, this isn't altruism, either: Not to harm is just to respect; no active consideration for the Other's good is at play.

In fact, we may distinguish two sorts of altruism, to which we are giving here original appellations, for the sake of more clarity:

• 1.
  The “egalitarian” altruism, where one is concerned of the well-being of the Other at the same level one cares about one's own. This is the commonest way to conceive altruism. It is expressed paradigmatically by the capital Judeo-Christian command, present in the Oldand the New Testament: “Love your neighbor as you love thyself” (Leviticus 18:18 and Matthew22:39), as well as in the Islamic Koran: “Help ye one another in righteousness and piety” (Sourat 5:2).
• 2.
  The “absolute” altruism, where one puts the Other's good at a higher level than one's own in the scale of the values and principles defining one's actions. It is a more exceptional manifestation of altruism. Usually, it is considered as characterizing the ideal parent's love toward their children. In more rare circumstances, it may be addressed to persons with which some other kind of loving relationship occurs (family, lovers, friends) or other larger common link (compatriots, people sharing the same ideas or beliefs). In the latter category may belong the “guardians” of the ideal Republic of Plato (428–348 BC), who were asked to put [Page 54]aside their personal happiness to occupy themselves with the welfare of the city, as well as some “national heroes” or “martyrs.”

The most astonishing case is the one where no other relationship interferes than the common human status. Such an altruism becomes, for example, the motivation inspiring the actions of persons commonly called “heroes of humanity” (or even “saints,” if they are attached at the same time to a religious belief): One's own life might be either literally sacrificed for the welfare of others or entirely dedicated to it (such as scientists choosing to work lifelong under hard conditions for discoveries that will help the concrete amelioration of others' lives, or persons embracing a life deprived of comfort and completely oriented toward works of charity, the defense of human rights, or even the Boddhishatvas of the Mahayana Buddhism).

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