Reflection Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 23

Reflection Paper - Essay Example oss such situations where irrespective of being apparent that a person did good to others, sans caring about personal well being, people did find a strong need to imbue such an act with selfish motives. In that context Robert Trivers’ concept of reciprocal altruism is of immense importance. Many individuals do believe that Triver by ascribing the notion of reciprocal to a noble notion like altruism does divest it of its inherent goodness and nobility. However, I think that even if we ascribe to the idea that people do altruistic activities to avail the benefits of reciprocity from the subjects they benefit, it still does prove one important fact that overall the human conscience and its genetic makeup is born to be good. It is a fact that people many a times act in ways that tend to benefit other people. However, the cynics believe that they do so to get something in return. At the least people engage in goodness and altruism to get the benefit of believing that they did something selfless for others. Thereby, in a cynical context, the moral satisfaction of doing an altruistic act qualifies to be a cause of selfish personal aggrandizement. This readily turns the idea of altruism to be opened to evolutionary ideas and explanations. Trivers in his article talks about the theories of kin selection and reciprocal altruism to convey that they emotional makeup and thereby the underlying genetic framework of humans so designed to be altruistic with the idea of benefiting from it at some other time. The crux of Trivers’ theory is that evolution does happen to favor such individuals that sacrifice their personal well being to do well to others with the intention of accruing a favor at a later stage. T he theory of reciprocal altruism did explain one important evolutionary enigma as to how do the organisms that sacrifice their personal well being, life and the ability to reproduce for the sake of others happen to evince evolution. It is quite understandable to consider