Altruistic Personality

Altruistic Personality PDF Author: Samuel P. Oliner
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1439105383
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 346

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Book Description
An enligtening and powerful exploration of those who risked their lives to help others during the Holocaust—and those who did not—and what we must do to ensure that such a tragedy never occurs again. Why, during the Holocaust, did some ordinary people risk their lives and the lives of their families to help others—even total strangers—while others stood passively by? Samuel Oliner, a Holocaust survivor who has interviewed more than seven hundred European rescuers and nonrescuers, provides some surprising answers in this compelling work. Samuel Oliver delves into the profound acts of altruism that emerged during one of history's darkest periods. Each interview provides a unique insight into the types of personalities that answer a call to action, and those that do not. By comparing these rescuers with bystanders, he provides a nuanced understanding of what drives people to act with extraordinary compassion—or to remain passive in the face of evil. Offering both a historical perspective and a roadmap for a more compassionate future, Altruistic Personality is not just a historical account—it is a call to action and a beacon for moral education. Relevant when it was first published and even more relevant today, Oliver argues that by understanding and fostering the traits of altruism, we can prevent future atrocities and bring out the better aspects of humanity.

Altruistic Personality

Altruistic Personality PDF Author: Samuel P. Oliner
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1439105383
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 346

Get Book Here

Book Description
An enligtening and powerful exploration of those who risked their lives to help others during the Holocaust—and those who did not—and what we must do to ensure that such a tragedy never occurs again. Why, during the Holocaust, did some ordinary people risk their lives and the lives of their families to help others—even total strangers—while others stood passively by? Samuel Oliner, a Holocaust survivor who has interviewed more than seven hundred European rescuers and nonrescuers, provides some surprising answers in this compelling work. Samuel Oliver delves into the profound acts of altruism that emerged during one of history's darkest periods. Each interview provides a unique insight into the types of personalities that answer a call to action, and those that do not. By comparing these rescuers with bystanders, he provides a nuanced understanding of what drives people to act with extraordinary compassion—or to remain passive in the face of evil. Offering both a historical perspective and a roadmap for a more compassionate future, Altruistic Personality is not just a historical account—it is a call to action and a beacon for moral education. Relevant when it was first published and even more relevant today, Oliver argues that by understanding and fostering the traits of altruism, we can prevent future atrocities and bring out the better aspects of humanity.

Pathological Altruism

Pathological Altruism PDF Author: Barbara Oakley
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190453818
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 496

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Book Description
The benefits of altruism and empathy are obvious. These qualities are so highly regarded and embedded in both secular and religious societies that it seems almost heretical to suggest they can cause harm. Like most good things, however, altruism can be distorted or taken to an unhealthy extreme. Pathological Altruism presents a number of new, thought-provoking theses that explore a range of hurtful effects of altruism and empathy. Pathologies of empathy, for example, may trigger depression as well as the burnout seen in healthcare professionals. The selflessness of patients with eating abnormalities forms an important aspect of those disorders. Hyperempathy - an excess of concern for what others think and how they feel - helps explain popular but poorly defined concepts such as codependency. In fact, pathological altruism, in the form of an unhealthy focus on others to the detriment of one's own needs, may underpin some personality disorders. Pathologies of altruism and empathy not only underlie health issues, but also a disparate slew of humankind's most troubled features, including genocide, suicide bombing, self-righteous political partisanship, and ineffective philanthropic and social programs that ultimately worsen the situations they are meant to aid. Pathological Altruism is a groundbreaking new book - the first to explore the negative aspects of altruism and empathy, seemingly uniformly positive traits. The contributing authors provide a scientific, social, and cultural foundation for the subject of pathological altruism, creating a new field of inquiry. Each author's approach points to one disturbing truth: what we value so much, the altruistic "good" side of human nature, can also have a dark side that we ignore at our peril.

Development and Maintenance of Prosocial Behavior

Development and Maintenance of Prosocial Behavior PDF Author: Ervin Staub
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1461326451
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 519

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Book Description
This book was inspired by an intimate, stimulating, intellectually enrich ing conference that took place in Poland. However, the book is not a conference report. Rather, at the time of the conference, participants agreed that it would be worthwhile to create a volume representing the international state of knowledge in pro social behavior, and many of them agreed to write chapters. This volume is the outcome. The book contains chapters by outstanding researchers and scholars who have made substantial contributions to some aspect of scholarship about pro social behavior-helpfulness, generosity, kindness, coopera tion, or other behavior that benefits people. The book concerns itself with how prosocial behavior comes about and what influences contrib ute to or inhibit it; how prosocial behavior, or values and other personal characteristics that promote prosocial behavior, develop; how socializa tion, peer interaction, and other experiences contribute to development; and with the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral consequences of re ceiving help. Some chapters directly, and a number of them implicitly, concern themselves with applications of knowledge about prosocial be havior, particularly with the question of how cooperation and behavior that benefits other people can be promoted. The purpose of the book is. in part to show where the field stands and what knowledge we have accumulated, and in part to suggest fu ture directions and advance the field. It is a truly international book, with contributors from most countries where research on pro social be havior is being conducted.

Standing at the Edge

Standing at the Edge PDF Author: Joan Halifax
Publisher:
ISBN: 1250101344
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 301

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Book Description
"[This book is] an ... examination of how we can respond to suffering, live our fullest lives, and remain open to the full spectrum of our human experience"--Amazon.com.

The Altruistic Urge

The Altruistic Urge PDF Author: Stephanie D. Preston
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231555520
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 165

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Book Description
Ordinary people can perform acts of astonishing selflessness, sometimes even putting their lives on the line. A pregnant woman saw a dorsal fin and blood in the water—and dove right in to pull her wounded husband to safety. Remarkably, some even leap into action to save complete strangers: one New York man jumped onto the subway tracks to rescue a boy who had fallen into the path of an oncoming train. Such behavior is not uniquely human. Researchers have found that mother rodents are highly motivated to bring newborn pups—not just their own—back to safety. What do these stories have in common, and what do they reveal about the instinct to protect others? In The Altruistic Urge, Stephanie D. Preston explores how and why we developed a surprisingly powerful drive to help the vulnerable. She argues that the neural and psychological mechanisms that evolved to safeguard offspring also motivate people to save strangers in need of immediate aid. Eye-catching dramatic rescues bear a striking similarity to how other mammals retrieve their young and help explain more mundane forms of support like donating money. Merging extensive interdisciplinary research that spans psychology, neuroscience, neurobiology, and evolutionary biology, Preston develops a groundbreaking model of altruistic responses. Her theory accounts for extraordinary feats of bravery, all-too-common apathy, and everything in between—and it can also be deployed to craft more effective appeals to assist those in need.

The Altruistic Brain

The Altruistic Brain PDF Author: Donald W. Pfaff
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199377464
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 313

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Book Description
"Unlike any other study in its field, The Altruistic Brain synthesizes into one theory the most important research into how and why - by purely physical mechanisms - humans empathize with one another and respond altruistically."--Jacket.

Personality, Identity, and Character

Personality, Identity, and Character PDF Author: Darcia Narváez
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521895073
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 465

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Book Description
This edited volume features cutting-edge work in moral psychology by pre-eminent scholars in moral self-identity, moral character, and moral personality.

Altruistic Behavior

Altruistic Behavior PDF Author: Paul S. Penner
Publisher: Rodopi
ISBN: 9789051838923
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 170

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Book Description
This book is an inquiry into the motivation for altruistic behavior. It uncovers the condition that prompts or sometimes even compels us to act intentionally for the benefit of others. This condition, the pre-reflective experience of another person as a self-conscious individual just like oneself, finds its origin in the very structure of the mind. The essay is a synthesis of evidence from neuroscience, phenomenology, Eastern philosophy, analytic philosophy of mind, and cognitive psychology. Hence, it is an excellent example of work in applied cognitive science. The book includes a critique of the several main approaches to the explanation of the motivation for altruistic behavior: biological, psychological, and philosophical. The path of the main inquiry produces several innovative proposals in the philosophy of mind in addition to the main conclusion. Included in these are a detailed account of the structure of the human mind, an ontological categorization of mental states, a naturalistic explanation of so-called mystical states, a proposal for the role of consciousness in the downward causation of physical events, a new interpretation of the Buddhist doctrine of no-self and a unique view of the nature of love.

Embracing the Other

Embracing the Other PDF Author: Pearl Oliner
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 0814761755
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 474

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Book Description
Combining both new empirical and historical research, as well as theoretical and philosophical approaches, an international and multidsciplinary group of scholars examine altruistic behavior, focusing largely on non-Jewish rescuers of Jews during World War II. They challenge several prevailing conceptions of the definitions and motivational sources of altruism, and explore possible paths to promoting altruism in society at large. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Altruistic Reveries

Altruistic Reveries PDF Author: Basant K. Kapur
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1461508096
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 193

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Book Description
Altruistic Reveries is a unique volume, which arises out of an Interdisciplinary Conference on Perspectives on Altruism from the Humanities and Social Sciences organized by the Centre for Advanced Studies, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, National University of Singapore, in October 1999. Altruism is a deep, multi-faceted phenomenon, of great interest and relevance to scholars across the entire range of disciplines in the Humanities and Social Sciences. The Centre therefore brought together experts in diverse disciplines - Philosophy, Literature, Psychology, Sociology, Economics, and Political science - to examine and discuss the significance and role of altruism from their respective perspectives. A total of 10 papers in all were presented, and the volume is completed by an Introduction by the editors, and a final Concluding Chapter by one of the editors. Among the issues discussed are: the efficacy of motivational altruism in the resolution of public issues; the genetic origins of altruism and its attendant risks; the metaphysical basis of altruism; empathy and altruism; altruism or social exchange; altruism in wartime; and the welfare state. A notable feature of the volume is that the various authors have not `talked past' one another. Although each is a specialist in his field, the papers are accessible to those in other fields, and to non-specialists. Both individually and together, they provide a rich set of insights and perspectives on altruism as a fundamental human and social phenomenon, which will edify, interest, and stimulate all readers of the volume.