A Scientific Search For Altruism

Author : C. Daniel Batson
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0190651385
Total Pages : 232 pages
Book Rating : 4.81/5 ( download)

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Download or read book A Scientific Search for Altruism written by C. Daniel Batson and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-10-19 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For centuries, the egoism-altruism debate has echoed through Western thought. Egoism says that the motivation for everything we do, including our seemingly selfless acts of care for others, is to gain one or another self-benefit. Altruism, while not denying the force of self-interest, says that under certain circumstances we can care for others for their sakes, not our own. Over the past half-century, social psychologists have turned to laboratory experiments on humans to provide a scientific resolution of this debate about our nature. The experiments have focused on the possibility that empathic concern-other-oriented emotion elicited by and congruent with the perceived welfare of someone in need-produces altruistic motivation to remove that need. With carefully constructed experimental designs, these scientists have tested the nature of the motivation produced by empathic concern, determining whether it is egoistic or altruistic and, thereby, providing an answer to a fundamental question about what makes us tick. Framed as a detective story, this book traces the scientific search for altruism through numerous studies and attempts to examine various motivational suspects, reaching the improbable conclusion that empathy-induced altruism is indeed part of our nature. The book then considers the implications of this conclusion both for our understanding of who we are as humans (the bad news as well as the good) and for how we might create a more humane society.

Author : Charles Daniel Batson
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780190651404
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.07/5 ( download)

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Download or read book A Scientific Search for Altruism written by Charles Daniel Batson and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'A Scientific Search for Altruism' provides an example of how the scientific method can be used to address a fundamental question about human nature.

Author : Charles Daniel Batson
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 0195341066
Total Pages : 336 pages
Book Rating : 4.65/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Altruism in Humans written by Charles Daniel Batson and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2011 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Authored by the world's leading scholar on altruism, and based on decades of research, this landmark work is an authoritative scholarly resource on the theory surrounding altruism and its potential contribution to better interpersonal relations and a greater society. --Book Jacket.

Author : Oren Harman
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN 13 : 0393339998
Total Pages : 462 pages
Book Rating : 4.94/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Price of Altruism: George Price and the Search for the Origins of Kindness written by Oren Harman and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2011-06-20 with total page 462 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Describes the intellectual journey of eccentric American genius George Price, who tried to answer the evolutionary riddle of why people are nice, and eventually gave away all his belongings and took his own life in a squatter's flat.

Author : Lee Alan Dugatkin
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691242135
Total Pages : 208 pages
Book Rating : 4.32/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Altruism Equation written by Lee Alan Dugatkin and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2022-11-29 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a world supposedly governed by ruthless survival of the fittest, why do we see acts of goodness in both animals and humans? This problem plagued Charles Darwin in the 1850s as he developed his theory of evolution through natural selection. Indeed, Darwin worried that the goodness he observed in nature could be the Achilles heel of his theory. Ever since then, scientists and other thinkers have engaged in a fierce debate about the origins of goodness that has dragged politics, philosophy, and religion into what remains a major question for evolutionary biology. The Altruism Equation traces the history of this debate from Darwin to the present through an extraordinary cast of characters-from the Russian prince Petr Kropotkin, who wanted to base society on altruism, to the brilliant biologist George Price, who fell into poverty and succumbed to suicide as he obsessed over the problem. In a final surprising turn, William Hamilton, the scientist who came up with the equation that reduced altruism to the cold language of natural selection, desperately hoped that his theory did not apply to humans. Hamilton's Rule, which states that relatives are worth helping in direct proportion to their blood relatedness, is as fundamental to evolutionary biology as Newton's laws of motion are to physics. But even today, decades after its formulation, Hamilton's Rule is still hotly debated among those who cannot accept that goodness can be explained by a simple mathematical formula. For the first time, Lee Alan Dugatkin brings to life the people, the issues, and the passions that have surrounded the altruism debate. Readers will be swept along by this fast-paced tale of history, biography, and scientific discovery.

Author : Kristen Renwick Monroe
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691058474
Total Pages : 312 pages
Book Rating : 4.74/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Heart of Altruism written by Kristen Renwick Monroe and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 1998-07-21 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is all human behavior based on self-interest? Many social and biological theories would argue so, but such a perspective does not explain the many truly heroic acts committed by people willing to risk their lives to help others. Kristen Monroe boldly lays the groundwork for a social theory toward altruism by examining the experiences described by altruists themselves.

Author : Matthieu Ricard
Publisher : Little, Brown
ISBN 13 : 0316208213
Total Pages : 824 pages
Book Rating : 4.15/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Altruism written by Matthieu Ricard and published by Little, Brown. This book was released on 2015-06-02 with total page 824 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author of the international bestseller Happiness makes a passionate case for altruism -- and why we need it now more than ever. In Happiness, Matthieu Ricard demonstrated that true happiness is not tied to fleeting moments or sensations, but is an enduring state of soul rooted in mindfulness and compassion for others. Now he turns his lens from the personal to the global, with a rousing argument that altruism -- genuine concern for the well-being of others -- could be the saving grace of the 21st century. It is, he believes, the vital thread that can answer the main challenges of our time: the economy in the short term, life satisfaction in the mid-term, and environment in the long term. Ricard's message has been taken up by major economists and thinkers, including Dennis Snower, Amartya Sen, Joseph Stiglitz, and George Soros. Matthieu Ricard makes a robust and passionate case for cultivating altruistic love and compassion as the best means for simultaneously benefitting ourselves and our society. It's a fresh outlook on an ardent struggle -- and one that just might make the world a better place.

Author : M. Babula
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 1137031298
Total Pages : 332 pages
Book Rating : 4.97/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Motivation, Altruism, Personality and Social Psychology written by M. Babula and published by Springer. This book was released on 2013-11-19 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Motivation, Altruism, Personality and Social Psychology takes up the debate around altruism and the acceptance in society that self-interest is a healthy guiding principle in life, and argues that helping behaviour can lead to self-fulfilment and happiness and is beneficial to psychological health and society in general.

Author : Donald W. Pfaff
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 0199377464
Total Pages : 313 pages
Book Rating : 4.66/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Altruistic Brain written by Donald W. Pfaff and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2015 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Unlike any other study in its field, The Altruistic Brain synthesizes into one theory the most important research into how and why - by purely physical mechanisms - humans empathize with one another and respond altruistically."--Jacket.

Author : Douglas A. Vakoch
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 3642377505
Total Pages : 325 pages
Book Rating : 4.01/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Extraterrestrial Altruism written by Douglas A. Vakoch and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-09-14 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Extraterrestrial Altruism examines a basic assumption of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI): that extraterrestrials will be transmitting messages to us for our benefit. This question of whether extraterrestrials will be altruistic has become increasingly important in recent years as SETI scientists have begun contemplating transmissions from Earth to make contact. Technological civilizations that transmit signals for the benefit of others, but with no immediate gain for themselves, certainly seem to be altruistic. But does this make biological sense? Should we expect altruism to evolve throughout the cosmos, or is this only wishful thinking? Is it dangerous to send messages to other worlds, as Stephen Hawking has suggested, or might humankind benefit from an exchange with intelligence elsewhere in the galaxy? Would extraterrestrial societies be based on different ethical principles, or would we see commonalities with Earthly notions of morality? Extraterrestrial Altruism explores these and related questions about the motivations of civilizations beyond Earth, providing new insights that are critical for SETI. Chapters are authored by leading scholars from diverse disciplines—anthropology, astronomy, biology, chemistry, computer science, cosmology, engineering, history of science, law, philosophy, psychology, public policy, and sociology. The book is carefully edited by Douglas Vakoch, Director of Interstellar Message Composition at the SETI Institute and professor of clinical psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies. The Foreword is by Frank Drake. This interdisciplinary book will benefit everybody trying to understand whether evolution and ethics are unique to Earth, or whether they are built into the fabric of the universe.