[lit-ideas] Sacrifice
- From: "Eric Dean" <ecdean99@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 13 Feb 2005 18:06:55 +0000
Julie Krueger writes:
"It has always been my contention that there is no such thing as real
altruism because the person acting altruistically finds pleasure in being
altruistic or they wouldn't be .... what am I missing?..."
I'd say that what you're missing is that the whole point to having the word
'altruism' is to mark the fact that it's a *good* thing that our
self-interests and others' interests overlap, and to mark the fact that that
overlap exists in a context in which many of those interests do *not*
overlap.
If the phrase 'real altruism' refers to situations in which someone acts
entirely counter to their self-interests, then I agree that 'real altruism'
does not exist. But I would say back that that simply means the definition
is bad.
Regards to one and all,
Eric Dean
Rockford, IL
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