The Ultimate Benefit Of Being Altruistic
First step is to identify the concept of altruism.
Commonly, it is associated with being the opposite of egocentrism. According to the website philosophy terms altruism means “doing things purely for the benefit of others, without expecting to get anything out of it yourself.” The free dictionary states that altruism is “the principle or practice of unselfish concern for the welfare of others.”
Greater good explains altruism as acts which serve “to promote someone else’s welfare, even at a risk or cost to ourselves” These definitions make it pretty clear what altruism is all about. Altruism is about compassion and love for others than yourself, although loving yourself is also important if you want to act altruistic and not burn out in the process.
At least, in my opinion. Altruism is about the act of giving and of helping others; acts which science proves are directly linked to our own feeling of happiness and well-being. There are no bad side-effects to the act of giving, unless you do not care for yourself as well, but that is a different discussion.
In my opinion, altruism is highly linked to empathy. If you have the ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes, then you could be more willing to help and support them. Meaning that, if you have a high level of empathy, you could be more prone to act altruistically. According to wikipedia, there is a hypothesis called the empathy-altruism hypothesis.
This says that feeling empathy towards a person, makes you want to help them, regardless of possible personal gains. Another hypothesis, called empathy-joy, is focused on people helping because they find it pleasurable to do so. This quote was found here: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/altruism As it is a fact that giving and helping others increases one’s own happiness, it should not matter whether people help others because it makes them happy.
Honestly, this is a win-win situation. You help someone = you are happy, and they are happy. Altruism has the potential of improving the well-being of others. We need altruism, and we need empathy. Both can improve the state of the world. When was the last time you did something to help another person?
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More sources about altruism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empathy-altruism https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/topic/altruism/definition https://www.thefreedictionary.com/altruism