ABSTRACT
Researchers have agreed without serious difficulty that psychological altruism refers to "behavior carried out to benefit another with anticipation of rewards from external services". The sharp dichotomy between an egoistic, individualistic life-style in which the "I" exists only for himself, and the altruistic, collectivistic life in which the individual lives only for others—and in which he is entirely discounted and immersed by a collectivist or totalitarian society—has long been a feature of Western interpersonal behavior. Alterism, on the other hand, refers to functional interpersonal behaviors prevailing among multiple unequal creditors who "benefit others" via contraction, but not destruction, of their self or the alters self. Zebulun owes something to Issachar, and Issachar owes something else to Zebulun, but neither of them is an altruistic, guilt/hate-provoking creditor, because it is mutual contraction of their crediting positions keeping their contract going. The philosophical difference between functional alteristic relationships and guilt-loaded altruistic relationships can be considered also from a social-philosophical perspective.
