Seung+Woo+Eun+(Altruism)

1. Are we, as some might say, motivated by a desire to save our off-spring?

According to the text, we not only have predispositions to help others, but also have desire to save our off-spring first. It is described as we first protect ourselves so we can have children, then we would protect our children, our relatives, and lastly any tribe or kin members. This is because biological nature is entirely concentrated on the protection of ones’ own genes, which means we are motivated to save our own people first rather than saving others.

2. Must there always be some sort of intrinsic reward for doing good?

Though we do not realize that helping others or doing any good acts are part of our reasoning to get rewards or look nice in front of others, it is actually the reward that makes humans do altruistic actions. According to the article, some of the rewards we expect are neurochemical rewards, personal pride, social reward, and the want of power over others. It may not be obvious, but our social behavior shows that there is no total altruism in our lives.

3. Mr. Otis once said, "That having integrity is doing the right thing when no one is watching." If this is so, and no one knows when we have done good, would you still do good?

This question can be controversial to different people because one could say that there is no point of helping if no rewards are given. However, there’s also the side of self-satisfaction of helping others. I would probably not do it if no one is watching that I am doing something good because I think in our social behaviors, we obtain more of the rewarding side, where we have desire to be seen as good by others and wanting something back from that altruistic action.

4. "Delayed reciprocal altruism", seems like a gamble - back to game theory, any way. Does this seem to make sense to you. That is that we act out of a desire to have what we have done being done to us?

Yes, this makes sense to me in a way that we are shaped by the influences of our surroundings and the environment. We act out of our desires because we think about the future and how we will look in return of anything we do. This also reflects what others have done to us because you would treat them as equally due to any emotional factors and social behaviors.

5. Are we ever being truly "selfless" when committing an act of altruism?

I do not believe that there is a absolute selfless with an act of altruism because we are always looking ahead of any rewards or any attention from the surroundings. For example, when a person helps to carry any sort of luggage, he or she is doing this for a desire to retrieve any help from that person in the future, or because of any attention that the person wants to gain from the environment.