Helping other species is not selfless because witnesses themselves receive relationship in exchange
Evidence
What is it that drew us to the hollow tonight? What crazy kind of species is it that leaves a warm home on a rainy night to ferry salamanders across a road? It’s tempting to call it altruism, but it’s not. There is nothing selfless about it. This night heaps rewards on the givers as well as the recipients. We get to be there, to witness this amazing rite, and, for an evening, to enter into relationship with other beings, as different from ourselves as we can imagine. — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 1314
Categorization
- XREF: Nursing as first reciprocal bond (ch22); good mothering expanded to all life (ch21); pond net that catches nothing but what cannot be held — all anticipate this reframing of ‘altruism’ as mutual exchange. — connects to: Reciprocal altruism is really mutualism, not altruism — Nicolas Baumard, A mutualistic approach to morality: The…, 211; Self-interest-based relationships become psychologically experienced as moral commitments — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 417
- ADDENDUM: Directly evidenced support for the reciprocity-as-relational thread in the ‘Grafting & Growth’ tree essay and the reader’s organizing ethic for the polyad.
Broader Connections
- Reciprocal altruism is really mutualism, not altruism
#contradicts(0.75) — Nicolas Baumard, A mutualistic approach to morality, 211 - Self-interest-based relationships become psychologically experienced as moral commitments
#expands(0.75) — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 417