Beyond the Altruism-Egoism Dichotomy: A New Typology to Capture Morality as a Complex Phenomenon

Weiss, Raquel; Peres, Paulo Sergio

doi:10.1057/9781137391865_4

Cited by 14 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…To offset costs, several NZ and Australia-based scholars (Goedeke et al, 2020) have proposed an altruistic-focused intervention based on the six-rung ladder developed by the Nuffield Council on Bioethics (2011) for the promotion of bodily material. The Nuffield Council framework aligns with the division made by sociologists of altruism into soft and hard versions (Weiss and Peres, 2014). In the hard version, altruism is egoless, self-sacrificial, and unconditional and refers to voluntary acts motivated by the absence of external reward or reciprocation (e.g.…”

Section: New Zealand Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Kelly Needs a New Coat: Views on Compensating Altruistic Surrogacy in Aotearoa New Zealand

Shaw

Gibson

2022

Sociological Research Online

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There is little research documenting the experience of surrogate mothers in Aotearoa New Zealand, and no published studies to date have asked surrogates about the significance of financial benefit or compensation for their moral decision-making. In this article, we draw on qualitative data from in-depth interviews with 20 traditional and gestational surrogates, 20 intended parents, and 46 experts in the field of assisted reproduction about their views and experiences of surrogacy both within the national boundaries of the New Zealand fertility clinic setting and offshore. While altruistic procurement of reproductive materials and services is legally mandated in New Zealand, compensation and payment is prohibited. To support our analysis, we draw on the concept of bio-intimacy to discuss the production and management of relational work involved in altruistic surrogacy arrangements. We conclude that the economic circumstances for surrogates, where compensation for direct and indirect costs is absent or insufficient, need to be reconsidered.

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Section: New Zealand Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Kelly Needs a New Coat: Views on Compensating Altruistic Surrogacy in Aotearoa New Zealand

Shaw

Gibson

2022

Sociological Research Online

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“…In our sample, those we identify to promote mutual solidarity are those who offer group empowerment/support, such as a Muslim youth organisation that helps Muslim youth. Weiss and Peres (2014) would describe this kind of mutual solidarity as 'soft altruism', which implies mutual care and reciprocity (the solidarity actions will benefit the self/ego), in opposition to 'hard altruism' (which they find impossible to apply to real life), when the self/ego has to be destroyed/annihilated in order to help others. Weiss and Peres (2014) are critical of the dichotomy between 'hard altruism' and 'soft altruism', and hence criticise political theorists and philosophers who conceptualised altruism and ego/egoism as mutually exclusive by arguing that there is egoism in altruism and vice versa.…”

Section: Convivial Solidarity As a Conceptmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Convivial Journey: From Diversity in Istanbul to Solidarity with Refugees in Denmark

Duru

2019

Conviviality at the Crossroads

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This chapter presents my analytical journey from conviviality, a concept used for analysing diversity in Istanbul to overcome the pitfalls of multiculturalism and coexistence theories, to the development of the concept of convivial solidarity for the analysis of transnational civil society organisations that support refugees and migrants in Denmark. Convivial solidarity is my construct and I use it tentatively to argue that it takes its grounds from the daily life and social interactions between people without putting boundaries in between groups, by stressing what unites people, what they share as humans, and their fight for convivial living. Nonetheless, it is not limited to social interactions but has also political and legal grounding.

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“…Since the French sociologist Auguste Comte was credited with first coining the term in his Positive Philosophy in the nineteenth century, altruism has been contrasted with egoism. Its precise meaning varies between disciplines and across discourses, but the belief that altruistic behaviours occur as a loss to the self is deeply rooted in western thinking, which divides altruism into soft and hard versions (Weiss and Peres ).…”

Section: Accounts Of Altruism and Solidaritymentioning

confidence: 99%

Altruism, solidarity and affect in live kidney donation and breastmilk sharing

Shaw

2018

Sociology Health & Illness

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Social scientists have recently diverged from mainstream bioethical discussion on the topic of the medical use of human biological materials for therapeutic, reproductive and research purposes. Rather than justifying the donation and provision of biological materials solely in terms of alleviating physical, psychological and social suffering, saving or enhancing life, and advancing biomedical knowledge, this work looks beyond humanist bioethics to take a social justice approach to questions of the life sciences. In this article, I draw insight from these accounts to propose an approach to the sociology of live kidney and breastmilk donation that is situated at the interface of the new sociology of morality and affect studies. To do so, I examine the moral economy of tissue provision with respect to its organisation around the discourse of altruism and the gift. I then turn to recent work on tissue economies, which are in the business of creating and producing biovalue, to discuss the manipulation of affect and the entanglement of new forms of bio-intimacy in the production and reproduction of somatic life. The aim of the article was to contribute to the study of the sociology of donation as a substantive field of specialisation within sociology.

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Beyond the Altruism-Egoism Dichotomy: A New Typology to Capture Morality as a Complex Phenomenon

Cited by 14 publications

References 21 publications

Kelly Needs a New Coat: Views on Compensating Altruistic Surrogacy in Aotearoa New Zealand

Kelly Needs a New Coat: Views on Compensating Altruistic Surrogacy in Aotearoa New Zealand

A Convivial Journey: From Diversity in Istanbul to Solidarity with Refugees in Denmark

Altruism, solidarity and affect in live kidney donation and breastmilk sharing

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