“Walk a mile in their shoes” : the oneness theory and implications for the altruism-egoism debate

• Main Author: Woo, Suxian
• Other Authors: Preston Huw Richards Greene
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: DRNTU::Humanities::Ethics
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/76108
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

In the following paper, a relatively unexplored and unique perspective termed the Oneness Theory will be explored, adding another dimension to the Altruism-Egoism debate. The Oneness Theory entails a significant confusion in one’s inner representations of Self and Other, which occur at both a physical and conceptual level thus leading to helping behavior. When one’s representation of the Other is inextricably confused with elements of the Self, helping behavior is no longer rendered to a being that is a distinct Other, making it non-altruistic in nature. Due to this confusion, this paper further suggests that in an idealised state where such conceptual confusion is absent, one might even be disinclined to engage in Altruism. After weighing it against Altruism, several egoistic hypotheses and more direct counterarguments, the Oneness Theory will be shown to be a much more intuitive explanation for other-oriented behavior on a whole.