Concept

Altruism (ethics)

Overview

ethical doctrine that holds that the moral value of an individual's actions depend solely on the impact on other individuals

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

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There are two aspects under which the doctrine that others' happiness is the true ethical aim presents itself. The "others" may be conceived personally, as individuals with whom we stand in direct relations, or they may be conceived impersonally, as constituting the community.
Herbert Spencer, The Data of Ethics
States what Altruism is; names Altruism several times.
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Altruism, on the other hand, may denote the theory that we ought always to aim at other people’s happiness, on the ground that this is the best _means_ of securing our own as well as theirs. Accordingly an Egoist, in the sense in which I am now going to talk of Egoism, an Egoist, who holds that his own greatest happiness is the ultimate end, may at the same time be an Altruist: he may hold that he ought to…
G. E. Moore, Principia Ethica
Names Altruism several times; states what Altruism is.
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And on the other hand, if the individual's interest in himself is in himself _as_ a member of society, then such interest is thoroughly altruistic. In fact, the very idea of altruism is likely to carry a false impression when it is so much insisted upon, as it is nowadays in popular literature, as the essence of morality. The term as used seems to imply that the mere giving up of one's self to others, as others, is…
John Dewey, Outlines of a Critical Theory of Ethics
States what Altruism is; names Altruism twice.
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Altruism (ethics)

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