Introduction

I argue that altruism is a niche area within Austen studies. Jane Austen lived in what David Owen calls “the age of benevolence” with strong pressures from the family, neighbors, Church, and the State to increase cooperativeness between the self and the other (English Philanthropy 1600–1960, Cambridge: Belknap, 1964, 3). In this part, I highlight the history of altruistic thinking and analyze different schools of altruism. From Aristotle to Darwin, D. S. Wilson, Joseph Carroll, and Beth Lau, I offer a critical dialogue on the possibility of the altruism gene, and I contrast different theories with data-driven research on the evolutionary sustainability of altruism at the family, social, and national level.