Heart of Altruism
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A01=Kristen Renwick Monroe
Adage
Admiration
Altruism
Anecdotal evidence
Author_Kristen Renwick Monroe
Betterment
Bounded rationality
Category=JH
Category=JPA
Category=QDTQ
Communitarianism
Consciousness
Contextualism
Convenience
Determination
Devotions upon Emergent Occasions
Donor
Empathy
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
Ethical code
Explanation
Explanatory power
Faithfulness
Forbearance
Free will
Funding
Fundraising
Generosity
Gentleness
Grand theory
Gratitude
Helping behavior
Heuristic
Humanistic psychology
Humility
Incentive
Just-world hypothesis
Longevity
Loyalty
Luck
Make A Difference
Modesty
Moral character
Moral development
Moral responsibility
Morality
Of Education
On Human Nature
Opportunity cost
Optimism
Philanthropy
Positive feedback
Pride
Prosocial behavior
Quid Pro Quo
Rational choice theory
Rationality
Reciprocal altruism
Religion
Rescuer
Right of asylum
Role model
Role Models
Self-awareness
Self-concept
Self-consciousness
Self-image
Self-interest
The Artist's Way
The Good Earth
Thought
Utilitarianism
Utility
Value (ethics)
Volunteering
Product details
- ISBN 9780691058474
- Weight: 482g
- Dimensions: 152 x 235mm
- Publication Date: 21 Jul 1998
- Publisher: Princeton University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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Is all human behavior based on self-interest? Many social and biological theories would argue so, but such a perspective does not explain the many truly heroic acts committed by people willing to risk their lives to help others. In The Heart of Altruism, Kristen Renwick Monroe boldly lays the groundwork for a social theory receptive to altruism by examining the experiences described by altruists themselves: from Otto, a German businessman who rescued over a hundred Jews in Nazi Germany, to Lucille, a newspaper poetry editor, who, armed with her cane, saved a young girl who was being raped. Monroe's honest and moving interviews with these little-known heroes enable her to explore the causes of altruism and the differences between altruists and other people. By delineating an overarching perspective of humanity shared by altruists, Monroe demonstrates how social theories may begin to account for altruism and debunks the notions of scientific inevitability that stem from an overemphasis on self-interest. As Monroe has discovered, the financial and religious backgrounds of altruists vary greatly--as do their views on issues such as welfare, civil rights, and morality.
Altruists do, however, share a certain way of looking at the world: where the rest of us see a stranger, altruists see a fellow human being. It is this perspective that many social theories overlook. Monroe restores altruism to a general theory of ethical political behavior. She argues that to understand what makes one person act out of concern for others and not the self, we need to ask how that individual's perspective sets the range of options he or she finds available.
Kristen Renwick Monroe is Professor of Politics and Associate Director of the Program in Political Psychology at the University of California, Irvine. She is the author of Presidential Popularity and the Economy and editor of The Economic Approach to Politics: A Critical Reassessment of the Theory of Rational Action and The Political Process and Economic Change.
