ALTRUISM. See also Egoism. Altruism as an ethical theory arose in late seventeenth century England. In reaction to Thomas Hobbes' psychological hedonism, altruism tried to prove the existence of natural impulses to do good to other people. Hobbes had held that all natural impulses and motives are self-seeking. He had expressed himself, as one critic put it, in "delightfully repulsive" terms. For example, Pity is "the imagination of future calamity to ourselves proceeding from the sense of another man's calamity." Again he asserted that the "passion of laughter proceedeth from the sudden imagination of our own odds and eminency."
Francis Hutcheson (1694-1747) argued: "Had we no sense of good distinct from the advantage or interest arising from the external senses... our admiration and love toward a fruitful field or commodious habitation, would be much the same with what we have toward a generous fried or any noble character... we should have the same sentiments and affections toward inanimate things which we have toward rational agents; which everyone knows to be false."
Hutcheson's argument is obviously unsatisfactory, and Bishop Butler (1962-1752) removed the problem by identifying the effects of self-love and conscience, "Self-love then, though confined to the interest of the present world, does in general perfectly coincide with virtue... Whatever exceptions there are to this, which are much fewer than they are commonly thought, all shall be set right at the final distribution of things... Conscience and self-love, if we understand our true happiness, always lead us the same way."
In the nineteenth century, Utilitarianism, without the benefit of a final judgment, tried to harmonize the pleasures of all individuals, so that one's own pleasure and the pleasures of others were always consistent. They were not so successful as the good Bishop.
Gordon H. Clark
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