Altruism

Altruism is based on beneficence and selflessness; it is other regarding and the opposite of self-interest and self-love. Altruism denotes certain motivations and actions performed from those motivations. An altruistic act is one which is’ done with the ultimate aim of benefiting another person. Even if such an act ended up harming the intended beneficiary, we might still call it an instance of altruism, albeit misguided. An act that is done in order to benefit another, but only with a view to one’s own later benefit, is not an altruistic act. ‘

Moral philosophy has many discussions which try to show that many seemingly altruistic acts are disguised forms of self-interest. Thus, it may be argued that a father who also dies in an effort to save his drowning ‘child is not altruistic. His conduct may be interpreted as a means to avoid lifelong guilt feelings he will experience if he made no attempt to save his child. Such forced interpretations are often made to explain moral conduct in terms of one’s favourite ethical theory.