Altruistic Reveries: Perspectives from the Humanities and Social Sciences PDF
Preview Altruistic Reveries: Perspectives from the Humanities and Social Sciences
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
The list of books you might like
