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The Tradition of Agape

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

7 Scopus citations

Abstract

Altruistic love is the epitome of human altruism. It implies acts on behalf of the other, but beneficent acts can flow from a variety of motivations. The evolution of altruism across species is linked to the preservation of offspring, and the most hard-core manifestation of this is the occurrence of maternal altruism. The altruist is someone who does something for the other and for the other's sake, rather than as a means towards self-promotion or internal well-being. The altruist no longer sees the self as the only center of value but discovers the other as other. Altruistic love adds the feature of deep affirmative affect to altruism. Agape is altruistic love universalized to all humanity as informed by theistic commitments. Altruistic love in humans is expected and nearly ubiquitous on the parentchild axis.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationAltruism and Altruistic Love
Subtitle of host publicationScience, Philosophy, and Religion in Dialogue
PublisherOxford University Press
ISBN (Electronic)9780199848119
ISBN (Print)9780195143584
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 22 2012

Keywords

  • Agape
  • Altruist
  • Altruistic love
  • Epitome
  • Parent-child axis

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