20130201052 Rebecca

What is Altruism?

When we look up “Altruism” in the Oxford Dictionary, we can obtain the meaning, “principle of considering the welfare and happiness of others before one's own and unselfishness”. Do you understand? Let’s go deeper into it.

Actually, everyone has his or her own definition of Altruism. For people who study psychology, they define altruism as "a motivational state with the goal of increasing another’s welfare." For a person who is a Buddhist, Altruism is the core part which is related to the love and compassion in Buddhism. For you, what is it?

For most of people, Altruism is to think more and do more for the people around you. It exists in everywhere and every time in daily life. On the bus, if a pregnant woman gets on, there must be someone offer seat to her. This is Altruism. In the lift, the one who is nearest to the button will keep pressing until all the people go out the lift. This is Altruism. Even in our dormitories, roommates keep quiet when others are studying, this is also Altruism. So have you ever found the beautiful Altruism in our daily life? Though Altruism is a great quality of human being, sometimes it is to blame because

it may harm us or our families and friends. We are not unfamiliar to some news that men dived into an icy river to rescue a drowning stranger but lost his own life. Indeed, it saved life but it’s not the real Altruism because it caused another tragedy in the meantime.

What is Altruism? Dictionary is a good way to understand it. What’s more, a deeper understanding can be from daily life.