Biological explanations of altruism will naturally start with a parent's sacrifice for its offspring. This is not difficult to understand by utilitarian arguments and is readily extended to family, friends, even members of the local group (a tribe, for instance). Beyond this, it gets difficult to imagine any kind of biological advantage for altruistic behavior. Richard Dawkins stretches this to the point of a sacrifice for someone you may see again. OK, difficult but not impossible.
But now consider what I would call 'global' altruism. This is altruism of the very highest order--A Raul Wallenberg, for instance. Wallenberg put himself at great and immediate personal risk for tens of thousands of people he had no connection with; nor was he likely to benefit from his connection to these people in any way. I've never seen an even mildly convincing evolutionary explanation for this sort of behavior. It's quite possible that global altruism exists in other species, but I am unaware of any examples. Does this bahavior separate humans from other animals? I don't know. For me, the existence of global altruism remains one of the perplexing puzzles of evolution.
Posts
Comparing Wood Windows Versus Vinyl Windows
10 years ago
