Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Unselfish concern for the welfare of others; selflessness.
- noun Zoology Instinctive behavior that is detrimental to the individual but favors the survival or spread of that individual's genes, as by benefiting its relatives.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A term first employed by the French philosopher Comte to denote the benevolent instincts and emotions in general, or action prompted by them: the opposite of
egoism .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun Recent Regard for others, both natural and moral; devotion to the interests of others; brotherly kindness; -- opposed to
egoism orselfishness .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Regard for others, both natural and moral; devotion to the interests of others; brotherly kindness; – opposed to egoism or selfishness.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the quality of unselfish concern for the welfare of others
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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This use of the term altruism makes it a very different thing from the quality or characteristic which in the West is described by this term.
Evolution Of The Japanese, Social And Psychic Sidney Lewis Gulick 1902
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And (since your altruism is the primary factor in your decision making) your moral decisions stand or fall on whether you are feeling benevolent at the moment.
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My "altruism" is the encouragement of ethical behavior.
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My "altruism" is the encouragement of ethical behavior.
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For we transmuted the vernacular word "altruism" to a quite different technical sense — and then solved the technical issue, leaving the human phenomenon (for which the word was invented) quite unresolved.
'Confusion Over Evolution': An Exchange Dennett, Daniel C. 1993
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Whether or not this altruism is realistic, especially given the large amount of money that Google pays to Mozilla, I think the important message is that users become aware of what a browser is and learn that there are alternatives to Internet Explorer.
Lifehacker Readers Ditching Internet Explorer For Google Chrome | Lifehacker Australia 2010
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Ultimately, it also proves the primitively atavistic nature of human beings: that altruism is an unnatural societal construct and that self-interest is the natural impulse of the human animal.
Marshall Fine: Movie Review: Inside Job Marshall Fine 2010
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Ultimately, it also proves the primitively atavistic nature of human beings: that altruism is an unnatural societal construct and that self-interest is the natural impulse of the human animal.
Marshall Fine: Movie Review: Inside Job Marshall Fine 2010
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I believe the human drive toward cooperation and altruism is far stronger than our drive to compete or relatiate, and is much more rewarded in our culture.
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I believe the human drive toward cooperation and altruism is far stronger than our drive to compete or relatiate, and is much more rewarded in our culture.
Archive 2010-03-01 2010
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That’s the kind of “Copernican revolution” of philanthropy that a social movement and philosophy called “Effective Altruism” proposes: shifting the focus of our altruistic efforts from “what we care about” to “what we should care about”.
The Problem With Facebook Birthday Fundraisers Davide Banis 2018
bilby commented on the word altruism
"I sat and thought. I had lied to the police psychiatrist in saying I was fit for work and lied to Jack Schitt in saying that I wasn't. If Goliath was interested in Hades and the Chuzzlewit manuscript, it could only be for financial gain. The Goliath Corporation was to altruism what Genghis Khan was to soft furnishings."
- Jasper Fforde, 'The Eyre Affair'.
October 27, 2008
hernesheir commented on the word altruism
US Railway Association, Standard Cipher Code, 1906: telegraphers' shorthand for "usual terms of agreement".
January 19, 2013