Term coined by Comte for the disinterested concern for the welfare of another, as an end in itself. Questions include the reality of altruism (see egoism), and its value. While altruism is frequently thought to be a cornerstone of Christian ethics, as a category it is unknown in Greek thought. It was energetically attacked by Nietzsche as entailing an unhealthy suppression or devaluation of the self, although in fact there is no evidence that altruistic personalities in general have particularly low self-esteem. In evolutionary theory behaviour is defined as altruistic if it increases the fitness of another organism. When there are immediate benefits that compensate for the cost of increasing another organism’s fitness the behaviour is called ‘mutualism’, when the benefit is to be reciprocated later the behaviour is called ‘reciprocal altruism’, and when the benefit is not returned by the recipient organism, but is part of a joint strategy within a group of similarly disposed organisms, it can survive via multilevel or group selection, as Darwin anticipated. This occurs when there are benefits to cooperation that are unavailable to groups of organisms that are only disposed to the more limited kinds of altruism. See also Darwinian Population.

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01369a.htm An account of Comte’s concept and its influence

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/inourtime/inourtime_20061123.shtml An audio debate on altruism between two philosophers and a biologist