There is a religious principle: Love thy neighbour as thyself. But it's also an economic asset. In the words of Adams Smith, “How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of others and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it except the pleasure of seeing it.”
What does it mean to “love your neighbour as yourself?” We all naturally love ourselves, St. Augustine pointed out. The purpose of the two great commandments (“You shall love…God with all your heart” and “love your neighbour as yourself”) He started from Aristotle’s definition of love: willing some good to some person. (When I say, “I love ice cream,” I really mean that I love myself and use the word CONSUME the ice cream to express that love.) Because it‘s always possible to avoid depriving others of their goods, doing so is both the bare minimum of love and the measure of what Aristotle called justice in exchange. But when scarce goods (like time and money) are involved, St. Augustine noted, loving your neighbour as yourself can’t always mean equally with yourself: “Since you cannot do good to all, you are to pay special regard to those who, by the accidents of time, place, or circumstances, are brought into closer connection with you.”
In this light, here is the big question. Are people simply compassionate or are there other motives that explain why we behave prosocially? Numerous studies from psychology, the social sciences and more recently, economics, attempt to answer this and other, similar questions which refer to other-regarding attitudes and behavior.
Individuals’ religion has always had a prominent role in this 21 century. This is unsurprising given that versions of the Golden Rule, “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you,” can be found in all major religions. It is therefore a straightforward assumption that religious individuals should be more inclined to behave in a prosocial way.
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