"A discussion of altruism, drawing on different disiplinary perspectives, could hardly be more timely, and this book is a thoughtful and insightful contribution to the debate." Ruth Chadwick - Distinguished Research Professor and Director, Cardiff University What motivates us to be altruistic? How did an altruistic trait evolve in humans, given that evolutionary theory assumes we are self-interested? What sorts of people are altruistic and in what circumstances? Is the welfare state a channel for altruism or does it crowd out people's altruistic motivations? This accessible book is the first introduction to the idea of altruism. It explores how we have come to be altruistic, and considers why it is important to remain altruistic, not just for the sake of others, but in order maintain the fragile fabric of human society.
The book surveys the history of the concept of altruism and examines it from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, including moral philosophy, evolutionary biology, psychology, economics and political science. It then attempts to bring together the distinct issues and concerns of these disciplines to arrive at a unified understanding of altruism.
The rational self-interested individual of economics is compared with the altruist who exhibits the virtues of empathy, compassion and benevolence. The book also discusses heroic altruism, such as that displayed by rescuers of Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe, and psychological experiments which seek to identify the altruistic trait. Scott and Seglow argue that altruism is easily extinguished and hard to nourish, but vital for a fundamentally human future.
Academics and students in social sciences and philosophy will find "Altruism" of great interest. So too will professionals in the voluntary and charitable sectors and journalists involved in communicating social scientific and philosophical ideas to the public.
About the Author: The Series Editor, Frank Parkin, is emeritus professor at Kent.
Niall W.R. Scott is a lecturer in Ethics at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan), Preston, U.K. He grew up in the Netherlands and The United States, in Texas. He started his academic career at the University of Ulster, where he read Biology This was followed by study of Theology at Belfast Bible college, affiliated to Queen's University Belfast, where he started to develop his interest in Moral Philosophy. After completing an MA at Queen's University Belfast, he went on to do a PhD at Lancaster University on Kant and the evolution of morality, supervised by Prof Alan Holland and Dr. Emily Brady. It was here that he started to shape some of his views on altruism. He took up his post as Lecturer in Ethics at UCLan in January 2004
Jonathan Seglow is Senior Lecturer in Political Theory in the Department of Politics and International Relations at Royal Holloway, University of London where he has taught since 2000. His research interests are mainly in the application of moral and political philosophy to current social problems. He has edited one and co-edited two collections of essays on altruism, all of which stem from the Association for Legal and Social Philosophy (ALSP) Conference on the ethics of altruism which he organised at Royal Holloway in 2002. He is co-editor of Res Publica, the journal of the ALSP, published by Springer. He is currently working on a book on the ethics of immigration.
