P A N

i read somewhere that this is a really tricky question because altruism can be seen to be found as either 1)evolutionary maintenance, 2)a self-satisfier or 3)true selflessness. i haven't really made my mind up but i lean toward thinking that's it's probably a rather elegant blend of all three, which we may not really be prone to acknowledging for various reasons ranging from strict ideologies to lack of information.

i think the thread may have benefited from mentioning a bit of detail about the reasons why this question is one worth asking, being that people will generally answer with what they think they think if they've never really put much thought into it or made the proper considerations before stating their opinion... this probably comes off as presumptuous or something, but i say it because it hasn't been made evident that there is strength in the argument that altruism is a biological tool of sorts, serving the purpose of continuity of species. which kind of makes sense.

i think one tends to lean in to side of these three different viewpoints because we're not really taught to intuitively accept things that can't be properly expressed by our current state of understanding, being that the scientific method tends to compartmentalize everything so much, which speaks to our logical side, when altruism is more likely the result of our intuitive side... unless of course you're faking altruism for capital or social gain of course (just had to add that last part because it happens so much it likely plays a part in our collective perspective of altruism.).