Re: Self-interest

["Alan G. Isaac" <AISAAC@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Would anonymous contributions to charitable organizations be
a starting point? --Alan G. Isaac

On Tue, 22 Nov 1994 20:40:27 -0700 Herbert Gintis said:
>	I am not arguing that all social interaction can be understood
>as reciprocal altruism. In animals, parents sacrifice for their
>offspring, and that is not reciprocal at all. It is more reciprocal in
>humans, of course (parents expect things from children when the latter
>become adults). I said that the phenomena economists investigate (the
>firm, markets, exchange, state intervention, etc.) do not need more
>than reciprocal altruism (in the form of repeated game interactions. I
>am not arguing that humans don't have higher moral senses--only that
>we can understand economic activity without invoking such higher moral
>senses. Or else I would like to see a counterexample of where they are
>necessary.