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Essay on The Comparison of Machiavellis Discussion of Liberality with Aristotle's Discussion of Generosity
Out nation's blood supply is sustained entirely by voluntary donations, yet fewer than 5% of Americans eligible to give blood do so each year. Why so few? Among other reasons, donating blood involves obvious costs time, some pain, and occasionally unpleasant or physically harmful consequences ranging from nausea to blood clots.
Perhaps the more interesting question is "why so many?" In other words, why would anyone donate blood? This was the question that intrigued Richard Titmuss, author of the widely-acclaimed book, The Gift Relationship. In this book, Titmuss examines the role of altruism in society as it's manifest in voluntary blood supply systems, and highlights the characteristics of voluntary blood donation that distinguish it as a unique form of altruistic behavior, distinct from other forms of exchange in a market-oriented society:
In the gift of blood . . . there is the absence of tangible immediate rewards in monetary or non-monetary forms; the absence of penalties, financial or otherwise, and the knowledge among donors that their donations are for unnamed strangers without distinctions of age, sex, medical condition, income, class, religion, or ethnic group.... How can they and do they learn to give to unnamed strangers?
How, indeed, do people learn to give? According to the philosopher Aristotle, the generosity displayed by blood donors, like other "virtues," is learned over time. That is, one becomes generous or otherwise virtuous by repeatedly performing generous or virtuous acts.
We acquire virtues first by acting, just as we do in the case of acquiring crafts.... for example, by building we become builders, by playing the Iyre, Iyre players. And so too, webecome just by doing just actions, and temperate by doing temperate actions and brave by doing brave actions.
Moreover, Aristotle argued, the motivation behind virtuous acts changes over time. A young person, for example............
