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Can altruism be unified?

Ramsey, Grant (2015) Can altruism be unified? [Preprint]

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Abstract

There is clearly a plurality of forms of altruism. Classically, biological altruism is distinguished from psychological altruism. Recent discussions of altruism have attempted to distinguish even more forms of altruism. I will focus on three altruism concepts, biological altruism, psychological altruism, and helping altruism. The questions I am concerned with here are, first, how should we understand these concepts? and second, what relationship do these concepts bear to one another? In particular, is there an essence to altruism that unifies these concepts? I suggest that while there is no essence to altruism, this does not mean that the array of altruism concepts is completely disunified. Instead, I propose we place all the concepts into a common framework--an altruism space--that could lead to new questions about how this space can be filled.


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Item Type: Preprint
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCID
Ramsey, Grantgrant@theramseylab.org
Keywords: altruism, psychological altruism, biological altruism, helping, evolution, fitness
Subjects: Specific Sciences > Anthropology
Specific Sciences > Biology
Specific Sciences > Psychology > Evolutionary Psychology
Specific Sciences > Biology > Evolutionary Theory
Specific Sciences > Psychology
Depositing User: Dr. Grant Ramsey
Date Deposited: 14 Nov 2015 18:27
Last Modified: 14 Nov 2015 18:27
Item ID: 11760
Subjects: Specific Sciences > Anthropology
Specific Sciences > Biology
Specific Sciences > Psychology > Evolutionary Psychology
Specific Sciences > Biology > Evolutionary Theory
Specific Sciences > Psychology
Date: 11 November 2015
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/11760

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