Altruistic Reveries: Perspectives from the Humanities and Social Sciences

192 Pages·2002·8.89 MB·English

by  Basant K. Kapur

Altruistic Reveries:
Perspectives from the Humanities
and Social Sciences
Altruistic Reveries:
Perspectives from the Humanities
and Social Sciences
edited by
Basant K. Kapur
and
Kim-Chong Chong
National University ofS ingapore
....
"
Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A C.I.P. Catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN 978-1-4613-5250-1 ISBN 978-1-4615-0809-0 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4615-0809-0
Copyright ID 2002 Springer Science+Business Media New York
Originally published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 2002
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1s t edition 2002
Ali rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, photo-copying, recording,
or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher, Springer Science+
Business Media, LLC.
Printed on acid-free paper.
Permission for books published in Europe: [email protected]
Permissions for books published in the United States of America: [email protected]
Contents
Contributors VII
Acknowledgements ix
Foreword
Chapter 1 Introduction 3
BASANT K. KAPUR AND KIM-CHONG CHONG
Chapter 2 Altruism And Its Limits 13
C.L.TEN
Chapter 3 Mencius And The Possibility of Altruism In Early Chinese
Philosophy 23
KIM-CHONG CHONG
Chapter 4 Altruism As The Condition Of Subjectivity 35
A.T. NUYEN
Chapter 5 Altruism, Risk And Sibling Rivalry 49
MICHAEL COLLINS
Chapter 6 Elllpathy And Helping 71
ANTHONY CHANG
vi
Chapter 7 Altruism Or Social Exchange? 85
ELIZABETH NAIR
Chapter 8 Economic Consequences of Altruism 99
WEI-BIN ZHANG
Chapter 9 Charitable Giving By Individuals: An Empirical
Perspective 123
VINCENT C.H. CHUA AND C.M. WONG
Chapter 10 Altruism In Wartime: Self, And Others 141
LIEW-GEOK LEONG
Chapter I I The Classical Origins of Modern Altruism in Plato's
Dialogues 151
ANTONIO L. RAPPA
Chapter 12 Conclusion 171
BASANT K. KAPUR
Index 183
Contributors
Anthony Chang, Department o/Social Work and Psychology. NationalUnil'ersity 0/
Singapore
Kim-Chong Chong, Depat1ment 0/ Philosophy. National University o/Singapore
Michael Collins, Depattmenl o/English Language and Literature. National University 0/
Singapore
Vincent C. H. Chua, Department 0/ Economics, National University o/Singapore
Basant K. Kapur, Department 0/ Economics. National University o/Singapore
Liew-Geok Leong, Department o/English Language and Literature, National University
o/Singapore
viii
Elizabeth Nair, Deparlment ofS ocial Work and Psychology, National University of
Singapore
A.T. Nuyen, Deparlment of Philosophy, National University ofS ingapore
Antonio L. Rappa, Deparlment ofP olitical Science, National University ofS ingapore
C. L. Ten, Department ofP hilosophy, National University ofS ingapore
c.
M. Wong, Department ofE conomics, National University ofS ingapore
Wei-Bin Zhang, lWsumeika" Asia Pacific U"iversity
Acknowledgements
The papers in this volume arose out of a Conference on "Perspectives on
Altruism from the Humanities and Social Sciences" held at the National
University of Singapore (NUS) on 29 October 1999. The Conference,
initially proposed by Basant Kapur, received strong and valuable support
from the then Dean of the NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Tong
Chee Kiong and the Director of the NUS Centre for Advanced Studies
(CAS) Brenda Yeoh. It was funded by the CAS and organized by a
Committee comprising Ngiam Tee Liang (then Deputy Director CAS), Yong
Jong Say and Robbie Goh (both Assistant Directors of CAS at that time).
We thank Ngiam Tee Liang and his team for their efforts in organizing the
Conference. The process of bringing out the volume based on selected
papers from the Conference was left to us, the editors. We thank the
contributors for their cooperation in making revisions.
We would also like to take this opportunity to thank Lily Kong, Dcan,
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, National University of Singapore, who
has encouraged our efforts in bringing out this volume. We are most grateful
for her thoughtful and gracious Foreword. We also thank Allard Winterink
of Kluwer for his guidance and support in the process of publication.
CAS was most generous in acceding to our requests for funding toward
the publication of this volume. For this, we are grateful to both the Director
of CAS Brenda Yeoh and the Deputy Director Tan Em Ser. One of the main
functions of the CAS is to support multidisciplinary research. We are happy
to say that this volume brings together the perspectives of people from
different disciplines, from both the Humanities and the Social Sciences. It
was most appropriate therefore that the philosopher C.L. Ten - Elected
x
Fellow of both the Australian Humanities Academy and the Australian
Social Sciences Academy-gave the Keynote Address at the Conference.
Basant Kapur
Kim-Chong Chong
June 2001
Foreword
It is my great pleasure to pen this Foreword, for a variety of reasons.
First, it is an excellent effort on the part of two senior colleagues in the
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, National University of Singapore, to
take the lead in encouraging and developing multidisciplinary and
interdisciplinary dialogue. Basant Kapur and Kim-Chong Chong sought out
the contributors, including philosophers, psychologists, political scientists,
economists and literary scholars, whose papers in this volume attest to the
rich diversity of talent and insights in the Faculty. I have always held that
academic disciplines are human creations, and to understand particular
human and social phenomena in as close to fullness as possible requires that
multi- and interdisciplinary approaches be taken. This volume bears
testimony to this in its approach to understanding altruism.
Second, this volume is the outcome of a conference held in October
1999. It represents the Faculty's effort to develop research by encouraging
and supporting the organization of such opportunities for dialogue and
debate. More than that, this volume also represents sustained effort to
ensure that there was not just a great deal of talk, but a tangible outcome, so
that the thoughts and theses first tested out in the conference room might be
shared with a larger audience.
Third, the chosen subject of discussion and debate itself - altruism -
speaks to me of the critical importance of humanistic and social scientific
understanding in the (post)modern world. The predominance of hard
scientific research as we enter the 2151 century, what with investigation of the
human genome and new media technologies, may cause humanistic and
social scientific research to recede in the public imagination, if not in the