up: [[Evolution Altruism and Cooperation]] Tags: #🌲 # There is no true altruism Can someone do an action that is truly selfless? To answer this question we must define what altruism is. Most people define it as doing something to promote our own welfare even at the cost of ourselves. Let's first argue if it's possible to be altruistic by this sense. ## The Evolutionary Stance Evolutionary we have evolved to be altruistic. If we were completely self interested creatures as a race we wouldn't have survived. [[Human beings rose to the top of the food chain by sharing food]]. In effect, we are hardwired to sacrifice our short term welfare for the welfare of the group in some situations. ### Proximate and Ultimate Selfishness Proximately we can do something that seems selfless. Like being nice to a stranger. But ultimately if we are in situation we’re relationships might last longer and there are things to gain from those relationships it could lead to positive things happening. Ultimately proximate selflessness can be selfish. Evolutionarily, we evolved in environments where relationships were not likely to last and gains were low, as well as environments where they were likely to last and gains were high. In the world you can see this through the fact that some cultures have more proximate selflessness in environments that promote it and others don’t. #### We evolved from our capacity for sharing In [[Burn]] as well, Potzner postulates it was our capacity for sharing that was one of the major reasons we have made it as high up the food chain as we are today. Without our capacity for sharing, men couldn't have gone out in search for meat without fear of starvation if they didn't get back to eat what the women had gathered. We wouldn't have been able to fuel our brains energy needs. #### Kin Selection The fundamental argument in [[The Selfish Gene]] is that nature favors things that cause genes to replicate in the next gene pool. By this logic, genetically related people will be more altruistic with each other because they share a higher proportion of genes with each other. ## The argument for true altruism One counterargument is [[Self-expansion theory]] which is the theory that those we are close enough to (best friends, family, and spouses) literally start to be thought as part of our self. Selfishness, then, can actually be true altruism if I believe that you are me. This shows how you can have true, genuine altruism alongside Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution. You can be truly altruistic by having the intention of putting a friend over yourself or even dying for them in the most extreme cases, but still following evolutionary theory because you literally see them as yourself. #### How do we make altruism the innate thing? By intentionally shaping our environments through [[Environmental Design]] we can create environments in which doing the good thing is the default scenario. ### The self interested argument for making the world a better place In the past few hundred years with the Industrial Revolution the world has turned into a positive sum game. This has made it so that it’s genuinely in our best interest for others to do well. Innovation follows incentives and incentives from many many people means more innovation. So if tons of people have incentives to cure cancer more innovation research will be done there. Helping others places prosper can lead to more people being able to afford education and therefore help further problems in the world. ### Disagreements with this argument Self interest is a poorly defined term. What does self interest mean? Self interest in the next second, next hour, next day, next year? What is your self? Your environment changes yourself, the people around you change yourself. [[Extended Cognition Theory]]. You can’t truly differentiate them. By this perspective, helping others is helping yourself. Your helping your future selves relationships by being good to people now. Especially your wife. They are practically you. ### What about TRUE Altruism? While I do think there are some cases where legitimate altruism is shown, the vast majority of "altruistic" actions are selfish ones in disguise. People performing altruistic acts think they are being unselfish but subconsciously are acting in a way that lets them sleep at night. Being able to sleep at night is in a way a benefit for the person doing the altruistic act making it not TRULY altruistic. In addition, being altruistic helps build your trust those you are altruistic towards which can give you benefits in the future. Perhaps the biggest nail in the coffin comes from neuroscience studies which have shown that when people think of their deepest friends and parents, the same parts of their brain that get activated when they think about themselves get activated. In other words, we see our deepest relationships as part of ourselves. Therefore when we are being altruistic toward those relationships we technically are benefiting our self in some way, once again making it a non selfless act. Related: [[Evolutionary Morality]] [[Evolutionary Psychology]] [[The Selfish Gene]] [[The Elephant in The Brain]]