Not Only Humans But Animals, Even Bacteria are Altruistic

There is not a single human society, past or present, where altruism of some kind is not considered a superior characteristic. 

Altruistic behaviour is seen to arise out of soulful maturity. Sacrificing oneself for the greater good of many is the ultimate act of self-negation and the true mark of a hero.

What is the Definition of Altruism in Everyday Language?

Regard for others, both natural and moral; devotion to the interests of others; brotherly kindness; -- opposed to egoism or selfishness. 

Altruism is a divine quality that is considered to distinguish the noble from the base. We humans always like to think that we are the pinnacle of development, created in the image of divinity but is it always so simple?

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When we are ashamed of some kind of behaviour, we label that behaviour as animal. Rather conveniently we forget that we as humans are indeed biped primates belonging to the 

• Family Hominidae
• Order Primates
• Class Mammalia
• Phylum Chordata
• and Kingdom Animalia. 

Of course, we never ask other animals what they think of us humans on this issue of superiority, especially the fact that there is no record of any animal acting stupidly out of deliberate choice as many humans do repeatedly.

Would animals laugh if we told them that only the higher primates of the family Hominidae could practice altruism? Yes they would. Altruism is not uncommon in the animal world. Even the lowly bacteria consistently exhibit altruism.


Definition of Altruism in Evolutionary Biology

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The definition of altruism in evolutionary biology is, however, slightly different. In evolutionary biology, an organism is said to behave altruistically when its behaviour benefits other organisms, at a cost to the organism itself. These costs and benefits to the organism are measured in terms of reproductive fitness, or expected number of offspring. 

Thus, by behaving altruistically, an organism reduces the number of offspring it is likely to produce, but boosts the number other organisms are likely to produce. This is a clear trade-off, which improves the well-being of the group. 

Altruism in Salmonella Bacteria and Animals

Salmonella bacteria sacrifice themselves for the greater good. As they enter the digestive tract, it’s a hostile world as other bacteria have dug themselves into good strategic positions. So the salmonella ‘select’ one in six microbes during cell division as an advance group. As they dig into the intestinal tissues, they cause the human defence system to inundate the tract. This clears away all the other bacteria, when colonization by other salmonella can begin. To paraphrase the great Winston Churchill, “Never in the field of intestinal conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”

Dogs often adopt orphaned human babies in Argentina, squirrels, cats, ducks and even tiger cub triplets. 

Huani feeds the tiger triplets and her own puppy at the Paomaling Zoo in Jinan, China. Photograph: Lu Chuanquan/Xinhua/AP

Dolphins regularly support sick or injured animals by swimming under them and pushing them to surface so that they can breathe. One extreme example of altruism is the Stegodyphus spider, which has a unique system of matriphagy, when the offspring actually eats the mother. Felix Warneken and colleagues from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology present experimental evidence that Chimpanzees often help other species, even humans without any reward.

Neanderthal Man Became Extinct Due to a Lack of Altruistic Behaviour

James Shreeve, in his book The Neanderthal Enigma: Solving the Mystery of Modern Human Origins. New York: William Morrow & Co, 1995, presents his theory of why the Neanderthal man became extinct. 

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Shreeve says that Neanderthal man was an exaggerated case of Me, Myself and I. In time, Neanderthal man became extinct because of an inability to produce altruistic and cooperative behaviour towards other Neanderthals, especially the females and children of their own clans. 

The ability to share experience, artefacts and values with others created culture in the weaker Cro-Magnon man helped them survive and evolve.

Criticism of Altruism

Critics of altruism in nature (e.g. Trivers 1971) say that it is only delayed self-gratification as we are altruistic in the expectation of future returns of favours. 

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Even when it is disadvantageous to us and entails sacrifices, it is ultimately genic self-interest, they say. 

What People Say About Altruism

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Altruism is a vision of a higher call for some:

Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness. - Martin Luther King, Jr. 

Others are pragmatic and want to have the cake and eat it too. 

I would rather be kept alive in the efficient if cold altruism of a large hospital than expire in a gush of warm sympathy in a small one. - Aneurin Bevan 

Then there are hardliners: 

If any civilization is to survive, it is the morality of altruism that men have to reject. - Ayn Rand

And realists: 

Let us try to teach generosity and altruism, because we are born selfish. - Richard Dawkins 

Reference:

• Dawkins, R., 1976, The Selfish Gene, Oxford: Oxford University Press
• Fletcher, J. A. and Doebeli, M., 2006, ‘How Altruism Evolves: Assortment and Synergy’, Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 19: 1389-1393
• Hammerstein, P., 2003, ‘Why is Reciprocity so Rare in Social Animals? A Protestant Appeal’, in P. Hammerstein (ed.) Genetic and Cultural Evolution of Cooperation, Cambridge MA: MIT Press.
• Trivers, R.L., 1971. ‘The Evolution of Reciprocal Altruism’, Quarterly Review of Biology, 46: 35-57

Should the Great Apes have Human Rights?

Is it true that humans have a divine right to rule over all animals and animals have only rights we give them, if any?

We are taught in school that selfish and corrupt dictators, and fascist regimes typically abuse human rights. Sometimes hawkish leaders come up with innovative methods of classification to marginalise some people on us versus them axes so that ‘they’ can be ‘contained’ for the protection of ‘us’. 

Currently we have at least two ongoing wars where the purported aim is to improve the human right situation of these countries where the wars are being fought. What is perceived as cultural legacy in one country is considered human rights abuse in another. Yet, we have a universal concept for human rights.

What is the Concept of Human Right

To give a clear idea of what “Human Rights” means, the United Nation declares that all human beings are born free and are equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. The United Nations universal declaration of human rights can be found in 360 languages.

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As the first country in the “Modern world”, Spain has extended this protection to the Great Apes by passing a law about rights and fair treatment of animals. 

The Chimpanzees, Gorillas, and Orangutans, called the Great Apes are our cousins on the biological tree. Along with humans, they belong to the subfamily Homininae of the biological family Hominidae.  

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• The Great Apes share about 96% of their DNA with humans.  
• Mice share about 90% while plants have more DNA than humans. 
• Scientists estimate that humans and chimpanzees probably split less than 5.4 million years ago.

Animal Rights in the Modern World

The Spanish parliament has approved resolutions, which argues that "non-human hominids" should enjoy the right to life, freedom, and not to be tortured. 

The philosophers Peter Singer and Paola Cavalieri, who started the Great Apes project argue that the apes are the closest genetic relative to humans and display emotions such as love, fear, anxiety and jealousy – and should be protected by similar laws as humans. Arguing that this law would be going against divine will, which puts man above animals, the Catholic bishops are dead against giving legal protection to animals.

Using apes in circuses, television commercials, or filming will also be banned and while housing apes in Spanish zoos, of which there are currently 315, will remain legal, their living conditions need to improve substantially.

• In 1999, New Zealand's parliament gave the great apes legal protection from animal experimentation. Britain now forbid experiments on chimpanzees, orangutans, and gorillas. 
• The German parliament voted in 2002 to add the phrase “and animals” to a clause in the country’s constitution requiring the state to uphold the dignity of humans. 
• In 1992, Switzerland amended its constitution to recognise animals as “beings,” and not “things.”

Animal Rights in the Ancient World

In the ancient world, respect for animals wasn’t totally unknown. In cave paintings of Lascaux or Altamira, 15,000-30,000 years ago the artists rarely portrayed the animals as being hunted or eaten. They were rather mythical figures of worship.

In his (The Fourteen Rock Edicts, 1) Emperor Ashoka of India decrees "No living beings are to be slaughtered or offered in sacrifice". 

About ancient Egypt, Herodotus (484-425 BC) tells us that “

The Egyptian Priests do to kill anything that has life, except such things as they offer in sacrifice, and animals are accounted sacred. Should any one kill any of these beasts, if wilfully, death is the punishment”.

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In ancient Greece, Pythagoras (580-500 BCE) urged respect for animals. He believed that humans have the same kind of souls as animals, in fact, it is the same one spirit that pervades the universe. The souls transmigrated from humans to animals. Pythagoras bought animals from the market to set them free in nature, where they belonged according to him.

In any culture, the mentally ill or retarded can be stripped of their human rights to free movement by being strapped to their beds. 

• Western democracies with women presidents or prime ministers snugly accept that they can’t have women priests, as they are considered inferior to men. 
• 4 million Americans, over 80% of them black, have been permanently disenfranchised because of even petty crimes. 

Has anyone ever heard of monkeys being jailed for stealing bananas or seagulls detained as “unlawful enemy combatants” and given shock treatments for terrorising people in market squares?

Now, as the seventh Great Ape, humans are consistently driving the other six to extinction, extending ‘human’ rights to animals is a great moral step for the human animal.