ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that altruism is not a puzzle of strangely motivated individuals, but an abiding principle of species life. It shows that human social life is hampered by a reductive standpoint that finds its forms a reflection and negotiation of individual person. The chapter describes the life of the species over the life of the individual. It focuses on the unity of the species, on the oneness that permits us to speak meaningfully of humankind. It shows that focus on the species is necessary to understand how its division between male and female plays to bring order to social life. The chapter considers Teilhard de Chardin who saw unity as a universal principle and the key to understanding all development, from the origin of the cosmos, through the onset of organic life, to the appearance of society and mind. The social unity celebrated in religious symbols of body appears in the irreligious precincts of modern psychoanalysis.
