Altruism

Altruism is a word referring to the state or idea of wanting to help others; i.e. someone who wants to help others is altruistic. Altruism is thus a concern for others that is motivated by a desire to help them. An other is any being that is not oneself. In terms of their focus, altruists can be focused on humans (anthrocentric), animals (theriocentric) or parts of the environment (the vegetative kingdom). "It is a traditional virtue in many cultures and a core aspect of various religious traditions and secular worldviews, though the concept of ‘others’ toward whom concern should be directed can vary among cultures and religions."
But the global poverty rate is half of what it was twenty years ago. Diseases that used to kill hundreds of thousands of people have been completely eradicated. They have crazy new ideas to try to wipe out malaria. Violent crime is way down. People are safer than they have ever been. And in fifty years, I am not sure I will be needed as an effective altruist. In a hundred years, I bet I won’t be. I am not sure the horrifying depths of inequality that exist now will exist for my grandkids to fight. I don’t know how long until we win. I don’t know how long until a world where everyone has the things they need. But we are going to win.— "The Unit of Caring" «we're winning» 30 October 2014
== Adjecently associated Extremes ==
Altruism is by definition something that reduces harm. If an action is more harmful than it is helpful, it is hardly altruistic although the motivation to the conscious doer may have been altruistic. The overlap of altruism and motivation for totalitarianism or proselytizing is also a relatively common topic in the contemporary West. The ideology of the Soviet Union was rationalized partly with altruistic ideas, and so was the ideology of the Nazi Germany.
Extremes at the edges of altruism are ideas like which appear in «Towards a Post-Darwinian Biosphere»: which asks  
"Why improve nature when destroying it is so much easier?" (Robert Wiblin), and suggests "phasing out free-living non-human sentients altogether" to eliminate their suffering. Also extreme but less fatal is «The Hedonistic Imperative» which suggests bioengineering all life in the universe to as much as possible eliminate its suffering.
== Media ==
* «80.000 hours» is a blog for Effective Altruists. 
* Dark Effective Altruism is a forum for Effective Altruists on Facebook.
* Heterodox Effective Altruism is a forum for Effective Altruists on Facebook.
== Branching ==
* See: Efficient Altruism; Philanthropy; Human improvement.
* See related: New Man.
* Health; Human health; Medicine; Human improvement; Care
* Altruistic accelerationism
Category:Concepts
Category:Virtues
Category:Personality