Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: The Heart of Altruism by Kristen Renwick Monroe ISBN: 0-691-05847-4 Publisher: Princeton University Press Pub. Date: 01 July, 1998 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.5 (2 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Why I like this book
Comment: Altruism is usually ignored, or explained away by analysts who see the world as a self-interested place. Evolutionary biologists, for example, attempt to explain away altruism by saying it's all the gene's way of reproducing itself, or economists say altruism provides psychic altruism. Kristen Monroe takes the phenomenon seriously. She talks with real altruists and lets them show us that altruism does exist, that it is genuine, and that we need to reconstruct our models of public policy to allow for people's genuine desire to help others. Every government official and policy maker should read this book before constructing public policy. The stories of the actual altruists are so real and moving, that this book should be assigned for high school students too.
Rating: 4
Summary: Fascinating social science
Comment: One of the dominant theories of political theory is the idea of rational choice. It basically holds that people rationally choose to perform specific actions to fulfill their self-interest. But this approach has always had limitations in explaining certain actions, such as altruism. Monroe seeks to examine the validity of traditional rational explanations of altruism.
In constructing her study Monroe decided to focus her analysis through interviewing numerous individuals that fall into four broad groups: Entrepreneurs (people who made significant amounts of money through innovation); Philanthropists (wealthy individuals who give away significant sums of money); Heroes (ordinary people who risk there lives helping others); and Rescuers (people who saved Jews in WWII). If you read nothing else from this book read the chapters recounted some of these peoples stories, they are pretty amazing. After presenting some of these individuals, Monroe seeks to examine the evidence through four traiditonal modes of explaining altruistic behavior and she finds each one lacking.
Having found the traditional explanations inadequate she presents an adimtedly partial new theory of ethical political behavior: perspective. Perspective is how one views themselves in relation to others. Monroe found that altruists all shared a similar vision of a universal, common humanity in which all people are essentially the same. Monroe uses this view to suggest a reapplication of rational choice theory. Where our basic identity is involved with a particular choice, people are not going to seriously engage in rational analysis, they feel as if there is no choice. One example given is an Orthodox Jew who doesn't see eating at a kosher establishment as a choice. But where choices do not implicate our basic idenity, traditional rational analysis kicks in.
Of course the study has its limitations, princably in its small numbers. Only a couple of dozen individuals were examined for this study and this raises some concerns for the ability to generalize the results. But the only real way for such a study to be conducted is through small numbers because of the complexity of the task. I look foward to further studies seeking to test her conclusion against new sets of evidence. While the reading can get somewhat dull in points this book is well worth the effort.
 |
Title: Some Do Care by Anne Colby, William Damon ISBN: 0029063566 Publisher: Free Press Pub. Date: 27 June, 1994 List Price(USD): $21.95 |
 |
Title: The Brighter Side of Human Nature: Altruism and Empathy in Everyday Life by Alfie Kohn ISBN: 0465007589 Publisher: Basic Books Pub. Date: 01 April, 1992 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
 |
Title: Making Room: Recovering Hospitality As a Christian Tradition by Christine D. Pohl ISBN: 0802844316 Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company Pub. Date: 01 August, 1999 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
 |
Title: The Priority of Love : Christian Charity and Social Justice (New Forum Books) by Timothy P. Jackson ISBN: 0691050856 Publisher: Princeton University Press Pub. Date: 25 November, 2002 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
 |
Title: Darwin's Cathedral: Evolution, Religion, and the Nature of Society by David Sloan Wilson ISBN: 0226901351 Publisher: University of Chicago Press Pub. Date: 01 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
