ALTRUISM.—The theory which makes a regard to the happiness of others the basis of moral distinctions, or constitutes a phase of the Utilitarian or Greatest Happiness theory, standing in contrast to Egoism, which was the earlier phase of the doctrine. Egoism makes personal happiness the end of life; Altruism insists that we must find our own happiness in that of others. In contrast not only with the Egoism of Hobbes, but with the more benevolent scheme of Bentham, both Comte and Mill held «that the more altruistic any man’s sentiments and habits of action can be made, the greater will he the happiness enjoyed by himself as well as by others» (Sidgwick’s Outlines of the History of Ethics, p. 257).
| J. S. Mill says:—»Pleasure and freedom from pain are the only things desirable as ends» (Utilitarianism, p. 10). But, he adds, the «standard is not the agent’s own greatest happiness, but the greatest amount of happiness altogether» (ib., p. 16). «Utility would enjoin that laws and social arrangements should place the interest of any individual as nearly as possible in harmony with the interest of the whole » (ib., p. 25). |
