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The Heart of Altruism : Perceptions of a Common Humanity by Kristen Renwick Monroe is a nonfiction available to read on EtoBox.

What is The Heart of Altruism : Perceptions of a Common Humanity about?

The author considers various influences that produce or encourage altruism by addressing empirical evidence for altruism. This evidence of altruism provides insights into the strengths and limitations of various theories about human behavior that typically emphasize individual self interest. Monroe develops her own theory for why altruism emerges, in which she argues that altruists have a different way of seeing things or a different perspective about the world and how to live in it. She concludes that the self-interest paradigms that dominate explanations of human behavior produce only limited explanations for altruism. In the book's opening segment, Monroe confronts various definitions of altruism. She ends up defining altruism as "action designed to benefit another, even at the risk of significant harm to the actor's own well-being" (4). Various approaches to understanding altruism have proven dissatisfying. The traditional economic, socio-cultural, biological, and psychological understandings of human nature cannot explain adequately altruism as Monroe defines it. One's perspective, i.e. how one views the world, themselves, and others and how each are related, capture

Who reads The Heart of Altruism : Perceptions of a Common Humanity?

Author

Kristen Renwick Monroe

Publisher

Princeton University Press

Published

1996

Language

EN

ISBN

9786612457791

Category

nonfiction

Subjects

Sociology, Philosophy, Political Science

Updated

2026-03-24