Altruism

In Our Time: Philosophy

BBC

History

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 23 November 2006

⏱️ 42 minutes

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Summary

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss altruism. The term altruism was coined by the 19th century sociologist Auguste Comte and is derived from the Latin “alteri” or "the others”. It describes an unselfish attention to the needs of others. Comte declared that man had a moral duty to “serve humanity, whose we are entirely.” The idea of altruism is central to the main religions: Jesus declared “you shall love your neighbour as yourself” and Mohammed said “none of you truly believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself”. Buddhism too advocates “seeking for others the happiness one desires for oneself.”Philosophers throughout time have debated whether such benevolence towards others is rooted in our natural inclinations or is a virtue we must impose on our nature through duty, religious or otherwise. Then in 1859 Darwin’s ideas about competition and natural selection exploded onto the scene. His theories outlined in the Origin of Species painted a world “red in tooth and claw” as every organism struggles for ascendancy.So how does this square with altruism? If both mankind and the natural world are selfishly seeking to promote their own survival and advancement, how can we explain being kind to others, sometimes at our own expense? How have philosophical ideas about altruism responded to evolutionary theory? And paradoxically, is it possible that altruism can, in fact, be selfish?With Miranda Fricker, Senior Lecturer in the School of Philosophy at Birkbeck, University of London; Richard Dawkins, evolutionary biologist and the Charles Simonyi Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University; John Dupré, Professor of Philosophy of Science at Exeter University and director of Egenis, the ESRC Centre for Genomics in Society.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Thanks for down learning the In Our Time podcast. For more details about In Our Time and for our terms of use, please go to BBC.co.uk.
0:10.0	I hope you enjoy the program.
0:11.0	Hello, the term altruism was coined by the 19th century sociologist August Kunt.
0:16.8	It's derived from the Latin alteri or the others.
0:19.9	It describes an unselfish attention to the needs of others. The idea of altruism is central to the main religions.
0:25.8	Jesus declared you shall love your neighbors yourself.
0:28.2	Mohammed said none of you truly believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself, Buddhism too advocates seeking for others the happiness one desires for oneself.
0:37.0	philosophers have debated whether such benevolence towards others is rooted in our natural inclinations
0:42.0	or is a virtue we must impose on our nature through duty.
0:45.0	Then in 1859 came Darwin's ideas about natural selection and the survival of those fittest.
0:51.0	His theories outlined in the original species were interpreted as
0:54.5	painting a world red in tooth and claw. So if both mankind and the natural world are
0:59.2	selfishly seeking to promote their own survival and advancement, how can we explain being kind to others sometimes
1:04.4	at our own expense, how her philosophical ideas about altruism responded to evolutionary theory,
1:09.7	and is it possible that altruism can in fact be selfish.
1:13.0	We'd need to discuss this is Richard Dawkins,
1:15.0	Evolutionary Biologist and the Charles Simoni Professor of the Public Understanding of
1:18.8	Science at Oxford University.
1:20.5	Miranda Fricker, Senior Lecture in the School of Philosophy at Birkbeck College University of London,
1:25.0	and John Dupre, Professor of the Philosophy of Science at Exeter University.
1:29.0	John Dupre, let's begin by putting the idea of altruism in some kind of historical context.
1:35.0	Right. Well, I mean, I suppose the, I mean the first thing says is altruism is a very
	...

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