Altruism in Society and Altruistic Behaviors - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages Insects, such as bees and ants, have a highly organized and efficient structure of social organization. It is because of this collective effort that they can organize and build structures.

In some cases, altruism has been observed in the biological world. Altruism is where an organism or person puts its safety in jeopardy for the benefit of its kin or social organization (Okasha, 2009). In the animal kingdom, prairie dogs will often watch and sound an alarm when a predator approaches. This gives away its position but allows all the others to get to safety (McGinley, & Caley, 2007). In terms of insects, bees will fight to defend their comb from predators, which usually results in the death of the bee. Humans display these altruistic traits daily (Okasha, 2009).

I believe that certain lines can be drawn for me personally when considering the traits associated with altruism. In terms of my family, I would do anything. Social support and relationships have been in place since birth. One could argue that on some unconscious biological level, I would be fighting to preserve the integrity of my gene pool. As we move up from family to community and then the state, the level of necessary altruism lessens because the responsibility becomes less personal and this responsibility of altruism spreads equally among all members, not only being my responsibility. The reason that the line is drawn is that “blood is thicker than water”. The ties of family are almost impossible to break, therefore the altruistic behavior, which would be displayed would be for familial relationships versus societal relationships.

Like As was said before, the aspect of self-sacrifice is a rare event that occurs daily in human culture. The same can be said for the animal world. Often, the concept of sacrificing oneself for the collective comes as a result of protection toward others. The example, being cited above, is bees that protect their kin, food, and future offspring from predators. Predators that attack the comb threaten not only personal kin but also the entire society. Knowing that they will die, they still fight off predators to protect everything for the good of the community. In humans, for me in particular, I would consider self-sacrifice to be a last-time alternative. I feel like this would apply to situations that would be a life-and-death issues regarding my family. If it meant that I would have to sacrifice my life so that a family member could continue, I would. In the case of the community, it would have to be such a threat that I would know that the destruction of our community would be imminent.

Altruism can serve as a beneficial trait regarding society both in the animal world as well as in the insect communities. Depending on the respective behaviors of both communities, each would act in a way that was typical of the community. In the case of the natural world, organisms are more altruistic than humans are; yet they lack all the cognitions and social structures that as humans we have in place. ...Download file to see next pages Read More