Psychology

Altruism can be defined as the acts of benevolence in an effort to seek the well being of others. The term was coined by August Comte in 1851 to mean the performance of duties to others without expectations of personal benefits in return. However, some people have not agreed with this definition based on the argument that individuals indulge in the so called altruistic behavior with the hope that the favor shall be returned some day (Costello, 2009). This revelation leaves us with unanswered questions as to whether true altruism really exists given that the behavior might have been influenced by particular rewards.
This paper will examine whether true altruism really exists as a totally selfless concept or there are some selfish connotations attached to the altruistic behavior.

Altruism Controversy
True altruism means getting involved in good acts to benefit other people without any selfish motivation whatsoever. This definition rules out the egoism and the so called reciprocal altruism which attaches some future rewards to the altruistic acts. By definition therefore, a truly altruistic individual would help everyone indiscriminately including criminals, rapists, among other social misfits without caring about the consequences of hisher behavior. On the contrary, altruistic acts seem to be well calculated with what can be referred to as enlightened self interest attached. There are certain internal if not external rewards attached to the altruistic acts such as wanting to be considered as morally upright and getting self satisfaction. There is no doubt that altruistic acts are preceded by some self interest or self concern and this goes against the universal definition of true altruism (Costello, 2009).

Conclusion
A majority of self-sacrificial activities do not necessarily involve direct risk to their life and may also have some beneficial returns to the actor. Most definitions of altruism do not regard the benefit to the actor as being of significance in the motivation to self-sacrificial performances. Some however allows for the inclusion of the benefits to the actor for as long as the benefits results from the altruistic behavior.