ABSTRACT
Are our efforts to help others ever driven solely by altruistic motivation, or is our ultimate goal always some form of self- benefit (egoistic motivation)? This volume reports the development of an empirically-testable theory of altruistic motivation and a series of experiments designed to test that theory. It sets the issue of egoism versus altruism in its larger historical and philosophical context, and brings diverse experiments into a single, integrated argument. Readers will find that this book provides a solid base of information from which questions surrounding the existence of altruistic motivation can be further investigated.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
chapter |14 pages
The Question Posed by Our Concern for Others: Altruism or Egoism?
part |44 pages
The Altruism Question in Western Thought
chapter |16 pages
Egoism and Altruism in Western Philosophy
chapter |10 pages
Egoism and Altruism in Early Psychology
chapter |16 pages
The Altruism Question in Contemporary Psychology
part |47 pages
Toward an Answer: The Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis
part |68 pages
Testing the Egoistic Alternatives to the Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis
chapter |19 pages
Aversive-Arousal Reduction
chapter |21 pages
Empathy-Specific Punishment
chapter |26 pages
Empathy-Specific Reward
part |56 pages
Extensions