The heart of altruism

The Heart of Altruism explores the causes of altruism and asks what makes altruists different from other people. Through a careful narrative analysis of moving interviews with philanthropists, heroes, and rescuers of Jews in Nazi Europe, Kristen Monroe rejects traditional explanations of altruism and argues that altruists have a different way of viewing the world. Where the rest of us see a stranger, altruists see a fellow human being. While factors as diverse as religion and genetics may contribute to the existence and development of what Monroe identifies as an altruistic perspective, it is the perspective itself that constitutes the heart of altruism. Monroe moves beyond discussing altruism as a substantive phenomenon, however, to treat altruism as an analytical tool to examine the widespread assumption that normal human behavior consists of the pursuit of individual self-interest. This assumption underpins many public policies and academic disciplines from economics and evolutionary biology to psychology, and permeates social science through rational choice theory. Monroe debunks the notions of scientific inevitability that stem from an overemphasis on self-interest, arguing that self-interest may form a useful starting point for explicating human behavior but leaves unexplained many important forms of human action. Her insightful analysis of the limitations of theories based on self-interest is complemented by the presentation of her own theory of ethical political behavior, a theory that suggests it is how we see ourselves in relation to others that sets and delineates the range of options we find available, both empirically and morally.