Quote:
Originally Posted by tore
I wouldn't call that altruism myself. Being nice to family who you share genes with is called kin selection. The reason doing so has evolved is because generally, there's a fitness reward associated wth it, which means there's a selfish reason behind it all. By being "altruistic", you are doing something to perpetuate your genes and ensure your biological fitness. Can it then be altruism?
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Note the context of the altruism wiki. Kin selection is not altruism, but it is a proposed mechanism for altruism.
Gene propagation is not the human reason for altruism; that's the evolutionary reason. For example, sex yields children, but that's not why we do it; we do it because it feels good. If reproduction relied on some kind of intellectual acknowledgement of the fate of the species, we would probably be doomed. Instead, it relies on us having an urge to get off.
Altruistic urges aren't much different in that regard. It makes some people feel good to make sacrifices for others. The individual hasn't necessarily reached the conclusion that it will increase the odds of their genes propagating, they are just following compulsions that randomly developed through evolutionary pressures and happened to lead to the propagation of genes that tend to lead to such traits.