Altruism, self-control, and justice: What Aristotle really said
Graham F. Wagstaff a1 a1 Department of Psychology, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 7ZA, United Kingdom
GWF@Liverpool.ac.uk
Abstract
As support for his position, Rachlin refers to the writings of Aristotle. However, Aristotle, like many social psychological theorists, would dispute the assumptions that altruism always involves self-control, and that altruism is confined to acts that have group benefits. Indeed, for Aristotle, as for equity theory and sociobiology, justice exists partly to curb the unrestrained actions of those altruists who are a social liability.
