Sinposis

ARE OUR EFFORTS TO HELP OTHERS EVER DRIVEN SOLELY BY ALTRUISTIC MOTIVATION, OR IS OUR ULTIMATE GOAL ALWAYS SOME FORM OF SELF- BENEFIT (EGOISTIC MOTIVATION)? THIS VOLUME REPORTS THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN EMPIRICALLY-TESTABLE THEORY OF ALTRUISTIC MOTIVATION AND A SERIES OF EXPERIMENTS DESIGNED TO TEST THAT THEORY. IT SETS THE ISSUE OF EGOISM VERSUS ALTRUISM IN ITS LARGER HISTORICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL CONTEXT, AND BRINGS DIVERSE EXPERIMENTS INTO A SINGLE, INTEGRATED ARGUMENT. READERS WILL FIND THAT THIS BOOK PROVIDES A SOLID BASE OF INFORMATION FROM WHICH QUESTIONS SURROUNDING THE EXISTENCE OF ALTRUISTIC MOTIVATION CAN BE FURTHER INVESTIGATED.