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Are we naturally Egoistic or Altruistic? Zoe Dixon - 102646526 Are we naturally egoistic or altruistic? Zoe Dixon THOMAS HOBBES – DAVID HUME – ‘Leviathan’ ‘Treatise and second Enquiry’. Egoism Man is selfish in the state Altruism of nature; we achieve Hume puts forward that peace through a sovereign not only do we Calculated altruism, which we obey for self- experience in ourselves a Natural interest in the preservation. feeling for humanity but good of others? underlying self- we also observe it in interest? BERNARD MANDEVILLE others. He argues that – ‘The Fable of the this sympathy and Bees’ benevolence disproves the selfish hypothesis Altruistic behaviour is a and is “contrary both to myth and the motivation common feeling and to for everything we do is Doing good for the sake our most unprejudiced egoistic. Our ultimate goal Doing good for the sake notions”. of good? is always to increase our of reward? own welfare and we help JEREMY BENTHAM others only to the extent V AND JOHN STUART that helping them can MILL - benefit ourselves. The theory of AYN RAND – ‘The Virtue utilitarianism somewhat Developed and evolved of Selfishness’ contrasts with both Selfishness in disguise? egoism and altruism. throughout humanity? Rand believes that since selfishness is serious, JEAN-JACQUES rational and concerned ROUSSEAU - with one’s own well- being, then it is therefore Rousseau argues that a requirement to achieve human nature on the Survival of the fittest? ultimate moral value. whole is good. He argues Must we be taught Rand therefore states that that it is the influence of altruism due to natural this is the reason that society that corrupts and selfishness is in fact a changes the ‘natural selfishness? virtue. man’ into an egoistic being. Deep rooted in human .

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Altruism, Morality & Social Solidarity Forum
Altruism, Morality & Social Solidarity Forum A Forum for Scholarship and Newsletter of the AMSS Section of ASA Volume 3, Issue 2 May 2012 What’s so Darned Special about Church Friends? Robert D. Putnam Harvard University One purpose of my recent research (with David E. Campbell) on religion in America1 was to con- firm and, if possible, extend previous research on the correlation of religiosity and altruistic behavior, such as giving, volunteering, and community involvement. It proved straight-forward to show that each of sev- eral dozen measures of good neighborliness was strongly correlated with religious involvement. Continued on page 19... Our Future is Just Beginning Vincent Jeffries, Acting Chairperson California State University, Northridge The beginning of our endeavors has ended. The study of altruism, morality, and social solidarity is now an established section in the American Sociological Association. We will have our first Section Sessions at the 2012 American Sociological Association Meetings in Denver, Colorado, this August. There is a full slate of candidates for the ASA elections this spring, and those chosen will take office at the Meetings. Continued on page 4... The Revival of Russian Sociology and Studies of This Issue: Social Solidarity From the Editor 2 Dmitry Efremenko and Yaroslava Evseeva AMSS Awards 3 Institute of Scientific Information for Social Sciences, Russian Academy of Sciences Scholarly Updates 12 The article was executed in the framework of the research project Social solidarity as a condition of society transformations: Theoretical foundations, Bezila 16 Russian specificity, socio-biological and socio-psychological aspects, supported Dissertation by the Russian foundation for basic research (Project 11-06-00347а).
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