Beyond the dichotomy egoism / altruism. Society and positive actions

Abstract

The starting hypothesis of this doctoral thesis is that the social and human sciences (especially sociology) have, since their inception, adopted a “negativistic” modus operandi that highlights only negative or pathological phenomena without ever focusing on positive or healthy ones. From here, the thesis relies on the hypothesis that there is no such thing as altruism or egoism in the behavioural sense as claimed by sociobiologists or behaviourists – there are, instead, “altruistic relationships” and “egoistic relationships”. It follows that its focus will be on “relationships in action”, i.e., on a relational process that is both action and interaction between individuals embedded in a socio-cultural context. In a reciprocal motion, the context partly influences these processes and the processes, in turn, influence the context. This thesis was carried out with the support of two main tools: literature review, theoretical analysis, and the presentation of some cases of “altruistic and selfish relationships” that occurred during the Covid-19 pandemic in Italy. The former will encompass those scholars (such as Comte, Durkheim, Sorokin, Moscovici, Mauss) who investigated positive phenomena and contributed to the advancement of knowledge on them (either using the term “altruism” or with other social constructs). The theoretical analysis (metatheory), instead, will identify the elements determining positive and negative actions. Furthermore, it will detect their significant relationships with all the components that constitute and give life to socio-cultural phenomena (personality, society, and culture). This way privileges the Ego/Alter relations within societal processes, since all social phenomena, attitudes, and actions are constructed in a sphere with specific places, times, and symbols. These three elements are crucial for the cognitive self-signification processes activated by individuals to build social realities in their daily relational experience. My final objective was to know if, from a theoretical perspective and from research was possible to overcome the egoism/altruism dichotomy starting from a procedural and methodological order relating to the object of study. It is not altruism and egoism (static terms) that must be studied, but processes – i.e., relationships. More specifically, “altruistic relationships” and “egoistic relationships”, where the former are positive relationships that benefit society (pro-social or hetero-directed) and the latter are negative self-centred relationships (anti-social or self-directed). I emphasized two fundamental aspects. First, I asserted the need for positive relationships (gratitude, altruism, solidarity, cooperation, etc.) to become an object of study for the social sciences once again. On this issue, I specified the role that both positive actions and the social sciences hold for the development of humanity. Second, I identified the elements determining and influencing the most significant relationships, to pinpoint those able to promote such actions. The above are the essential elements I addressed in the nine chapters that make up this thesis (plus Introduction and two Appendixes) with the help of supporting references.