Mario A. Sánchez
Mrs. Díaz
Sociology
11 October 2016
The White Snake: An Analysis of What Constitutes as Altruism Altruism, or altruistic behavior, can be defined as the action of someone who goes out of his or her way to provide some type of help to someone completely unrelated to that person without expecting anything in return. It’s a matter of morality rather than rational choice. The concept could be seen as sort of a mirror or opposite to reciprocity, which is the idea that if you provide some form of help to certain person or group of people, the person or people that received the help owe you something in return. Not to be confused with social reciprocity, which is “the back-and-forth of social interaction”(ASBC). A lot of times it
…show more content…
In The White Snake, the protagonist, after being accused of stealing the Queen’s ring was afraid for his life. He was worried because they were going to execute him and he didn’t have any justifiable way to prove his innocence. We have to consider that by the time he was told he was going to be executed, he had already ate the white snake, he already had the ability to listen and speak to animals. He surely must have realized that there were more to these animals than meets the eye and that the animals were able to showcase the same type of personality, emotion and pain that any other human could. We know this because the protagonist helped the ravens, the ants, and the fish precisely for this reason, he realized that they suffered and pleaded for their life just like any human would. So knowing this, when we go back to the courtyard where the protagonist was sitting when he saw the ducks talking by a brook, when the protagonist realized the duck had accidentally ate the Queen’s ring it is said that “the servant at once seized her by the neck, carried her to the kitchen, and said to the cook, here is a fine duck, pray, kill her”(Grimm, Wilhelm). This action was anything but …show more content…
“The Norm of Reciprocity: A Preliminary Statement.” American
Sociological Review, vol. 25, no. 2, 1960, p. 161. doi:10.2307/2092623.
Grimm, Wilhelm et al. The Original Folk &Amp; Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm: the
Complete First Edition.
“History of Blood Banking | Community Blood Center.” History of Blood Banking |
Community Blood Center, http://givingblood.org/about-blood/history-of-blood-banking.aspx.
“Learn How to Get Involved.” The Autism Society of BaltimoreChesapeake ASBC, http://www.baltimoreautismsociety.org/glossary/term/social-reciprocity/. Marsh, Abigail. “Transcript of ‘Why Some People Are More Altruistic than Others.’” Abigail
Marsh: Why Some People Are More Altruistic than Others, Ted Talks.
“Merriam-Webster.” Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster, http://www.merriam- webster.com/dictionary/altruism. Packer, C. “Reciprocal Altruism in Papio Anubis.” Nature, vol. 265, no. 5593, Mar. 1977, pp.
441–443. doi:10.1038/265441a0.
Schino, Gabriele, and Filippo Aureli. “A Few Misunderstandings about Reciprocal
Altruism.” Communicative &Amp; Integrative Biology, Landes Bioscience, 2010, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmc3038063/.
Trivers, Robert L. “The Evolution of Reciprocal Altruism.” The Quarterly Review of
According to the article, Altruism and helping behavior, it is common for people to help others. Altruism is defined as “the desire to help another person even if it doesn’t benefit the helper” (Altruism and Helping Behavior. Print.). Helping behavior is “any act that is intended to benefit another person”
This adds to the reader’s sympathy because he didn’t provoke the man’s attack and did nothing to deserve what happened to him. He was punished despite being completely innocent. Though the snake does not pose a direct threat, he is an extremely powerful creature and a great asset to the beauty of nature. He “felt no necessity of getting out of anybody’s path,” showing his confidence in himself. Though he is confident, he is not arrogant. He does not cower at the sight of the man, nor does he try to threaten him. He simply stands his ground confidently, waiting for the man to dictate his next move. This trait of the snake causes the reader to respect him and appreciate his position of power, reinforcing their sympathetic feelings. The snake’s death was slow and painful, and the author described all of the gruesome details in order to further affect the reader. The man himself admits that “it was a nasty sight”. First, he hacked about in the paper bag bush until he “dragged
Thewessen, J. G. M., Williams, E. M., Roe, L. J. & Hussain, S. T. Nature 413, 277-281.
By definition, altruism is "the principle or practice of unselfish concern for or devotion to the welfare of others". Through vigorous analysis, however, I have established it to be a complex ideology whose followers can be divided into three categories: slaves, abusers, and advocates. The slave abides by the ideals of 'pure' altruism. In other words, he does not act according to personal need or desire; humanity is all that matters. This is altruism in its purest form and is the branch of altruism which envelopes Catherine and allows her to feel a sense of purpose. Yet, much more common is the abuser of altruism. He is the altruist who ascertains and seizes any opportunity for personal gain by abusing the ostensibly philanthropic ideology. As ironic as this seems, it is common practice for one to proffer with the intention of receiving something in return. Peter Keating demonstrates how such an abuser manipulates altruism into a golden ladder by which he may reach success. Reigning over even the most conniving abuser is the omnipot...
Altruism regards the individual life as something one may be required to sacrifice for the sake of
King Mufasa showed true altruism when he rescued Simba from the stampede. Altruism is an unselfish desire to help someone else without regard to personal welfare or safety. Some psychologists argue that in reality, altruistic acts are in fact motivated by self-interests such as to present one's self as powerful, caring,
My attention was also drawn to several questions in this podcast, which made me eager to find the answers to these questions. For example, one interesting question I heard was “when you do see generosity how do you know it’s really generous” (Levy, 2010). This question stood out to me because it is one particular question I don’t think about often and made me wonder whether people help someone out because they see it as a duty. However, I believe the best answer to this question is the portrayal of the concept of norm of reciprocity, which indicates “the expectation that helping others will increase the likelihood that they will help us in the future” (Akert, Aronson, & Wilson, 2013, p.303). This is true because “generosity” happens when both persons are nice to each other and if an individual helps another person then it’s easy to assume that the person who was
Altruism is selfless acts like someone willingly sacrificing their life for their child’s. When people show acts of altruism it is usually because they feel empathy for the person. They have feelings that reflect on how that person is feeling in the situation. We sacrifice ourselves for strangers in need to help reduce our personal distress of seeing them in need. Another reason is experiencing the feelings of the person in need. If a person sees someone having car trouble they will want to help because they remember having car trouble with no one around to help. They are sacrificing their wellbeing by pulling over to help, they could be putting themselves in a bad situation if the person is a criminal.
People perpetrate seemingly selfless acts almost daily. You see it all over the news; the man who saved that woman from a burning building, the mother who sacrificed herself to protect her children from the bomb blast. But how benevolent are these actions? Are these so-called “heroes” really sacrificing themselves to help others? Until recently, it was the common belief that altruism, or selfless and unconditional kindness, was limited primarily to the human race. However, within the last century, the works of several scientists, most prominently George Price, have provided substantial evidence concluding that altruism is nothing more than a survival technique, one that can be calculated with a simple equation.
Altruism can be found in various places like Primates, Humans, and even Bacteria. Reciprocal altruism is often mixed up with altruism, a good difference of them can be found in the common expression, “I scratch your back, and you scratch my back....
Gintis, Herbert, Samuel Bowles, Robert Boyd, and Ermst Fehr. “Explaining Altruistic Behavior in Humans.” Evolution and Human Behavior 24 (2003): 153-172. Web. 5 Feb. 2012
For someone who believes in psychological egoism, i t is difficult to find an action that would be acknowledged as purely altruistic. In practice, altruism, is the performance of duties to others with no view to any sort of personal...
One form is generalized reciprocity, which is the giving of goods without expectation of a return of equal value at any definite future time. Generalized reciprocity occurs mainly between individuals who are emotionally attached to one another and have a responsibility to help one another on the basis of need. In the United States, parents who provide their children with shelter, food, vehicles, college educations, and interest-free loans are practicing generalized reciprocity. Giving without the expectation of a quick and equivalent return should also occur between certain other kinds of social relations, such as wives and husbands, siblings, and sometimes close friends. Among certain groups of people more goods are exchanged using this form than any other. For example, most members of small hunting and gathering groups are expected to share food and be generous with their possessions. Generalized reciprocity happens in all human populations and is the dominant mode of exchange in very small groups in which all or most members are relatives.
Tait, D. J., & Whiteman, M. C. (2009, 07 3). Personality Traits of Altruistic People: Empathy and the Big Five Factors. Retrieved from Edinburgh Research Archive: https://www.era.lib.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/3547