[lbo-talk] Altruism

[Carrol Cox]

ravi wrote:Wilson/Sober offer a pretty good working definition of 
altruism for use in biology (the rare instance of a useful reduction) as 
actions that increase the fitness of others (in particular non-kin) at 
the cost of one’s own fitness.

Cbc: O.K. for biologists, but it   causes  confusion in history and 
politics. It was coined by Auguste Comte for sociological analysis, and 
grounds an individualist sociology.

WS: (as all abstract concepts are metaphorical derivatives of sensory 
perceptions,)

ravi: You aren’t saying what I think you are saying are you? That all 
concepts spring from the senses?

Cbc: Yup. W does not acknowledge the reality of relations -- which are 
neither abstractions _nor_ derivatives of perception. It's a sort of 
Icarian fall into a sea of matter.

Carrol