joanna bujes wrote:
>
> Altruism only needs to be "explained" if you assume that the world is an
> aggregate of (self-serving) individuals.
Yes.
The word was coined by Auguste Comte -- i.e., the concept was created to name a problem that only showed up in an utterly ahistorical and radically individualist worldview.
The problem does not exist because the assumptions that pose it are false.
Carrol