For the Greater Good of All
It has been called the “the master problem” of social life: What is the connection between the individual and the collective, including groups, organizations, communities, and society itself? Healthy adult human beings can survive apart from other members of the species, yet across individuals, societies, and eras, humans consistently seek inclusion in the collective, where they must balance their personal needs and desires against the demands and requirements of their groups. Some never sink too deeply into the larger collective, for they remain individualists who are so self-reliant that they refuse to rely on others or concern themselves with others’ outcomes. Other people, in contrast, put the collective’s interests before their own personal needs, sacrificing personal gain for what is often called “the greater good.”
Few problems in modern life cannot be traced, at least in part, to the basic issue of the tension between the individual and the greater good. Leaders must make choices that will yield benefits for the constituents, but in most cases these choices will leave some members of the collective unsatisfied. In the political arena, those who occupy different locations on the continuum from liberal-conservative continuum have very different views on the rights of individuals, and the rights of the collective. In business, questions of corporate responsibility arise in debates over shareholder rights and responsibility to the community where the corporation is located. In educational settings teachers must continually strive to meet the needs of the entire group of learners, realizing that their focus may leave some learners struggling and others unchallenged. Policy makers must continually struggle to keep their ultimate ends in view, as they balance the welfare of the good of all against the rights and wishes of individuals.
Understanding this vital tension between the one and the many requires a multidisciplinary perspective, for fields as different as psychology, anthropology, history, philosophy, and biology examine aspects of the individual-collective connection. Recognizing the need for interdisciplinarity and depth of analysis, the Jepson Forum series for 2009-2010 included a small, academic conference that took place in January of 2010. Nine experts from a variety of disciplines were invited to campus to present their views on issues related to the greater good, to discuss their perspectives with one another, and to contribute a chapter to a volume on the topic.
The result was the collection, For the Greater Good of All, edited by Don Forsyth and Crystal Hoyt, published in 2011 by Praeger. This site provides a link to their presentations, as well as other resource materials.
Daniel Batson: Empathy-Induced Altruism: Friend or Foe of the Common Good?
Dr. Batson, professor emeritus at University of Kansas, is an expert on the psychological and emotional bases of altruism. His experimental work examines the causes and mediators of both morally commendable and less honorable forms of behavior, including altruism, hypocrisy, helpfulness, and empathy. His books include The Altruism Question: Toward a Social Psychological Answer.
Sarah Brosnan: What Do Capuchin Monkeys Tell Us About Cooperation?
Dr. Brosnan, a primatologist at Georgia State University, studies cooperation, reciprocity, inequity, and other economic processes in nonhuman species. Taking an evolutionary perspective, she examines how primates interact with one another in communal settings, and, how the social environment affects their actions and interactions. She is currently applying game theory to primates to determine if other species will cooperate when given the opportunity to do so. She also studies the evolution of responses to inequity, and was the lead author on the study (with F. DeWaal) on relative deprivation in primates (capuchins).
Joan Y. Chiao: Cultural Neuroscience and the Collective Good
Dr. Chiao, at Northwestern University, is a cultural neuroscientist who investigates how social factors influence basic psychological and neural processes underlying social behavior and emotion processing, using functional neuroimaging (fMRI), event-related potentials (ERP), genotyping and behavioral paradigms. In addition to her studies of perceptions of hierarchy, she is also interested in the physiological foundations of selfishness (egoism) and selflessness (collectivism). Her work includes “Knowing who’s boss: fMRI and ERP investigations of social dominance perception” in the journal Group Relations and Intergroup Processes.
Eric Daniels: A Brief History of Individualism in American Thought
Dr. Daniels is a Research Professor at the Clemson Institute for the Study of Capitalism Clemson University. He previously served as a postdoctoral fellow and visiting assistant professor at Duke University’s Program on Values and Ethics in the Marketplace. He is an expert on the history of American ethics, American business and entrepreneurship, and the American Enlightenment, and his publications include a chapter in The Abolition of Antitrust and the U.S. Economic Freedom Index, 2008 Report (with McQuillan, Maloney, & Eastwood).
Brian Hayden: Big Man, Big Heart? The Political Role of Aggrandizers in Egalitarian and Transegalitarian Societies
Dr. Hayden, of Simon Fraser University, is an archeologist who specializes in cultural ecology and political ecology, which is the use of resources and energy to achieve political goals. He has done extensive field work and ethnoarcheology, and brings a unique understanding of the transformation of hunting and gathering societies into stratified chiefdoms. His books include Shamans, Sorcerers, and Saints: The Prehistory of Religion and L’Homme et l’Inégalité.
Edwin A. Locke: Individualism, Collectivism, Leadership, and the Greater Good
Dr. Locke, emeritus professor from University of Maryland, is an industrial/ organizational psychologist well-known for his work (with Latham) on goals setting and performance, and his advocacy for individualistic approaches to motivation and performance. He works with the Ayn Rand Institute and is interested in the application of the philosophy of objectivism to the behavioral sciences. He books include The Prime Movers: Traits of the Great Wealth Creators.
Neil Mitchell: Resisting Machiavelli: Reducing Collective Harm in Conflict
Dr. Neil Mitchell, is the Chair of Politics in the School of Social Science at the University of Aberdeen. He has written broadly on topics related to political action, and the irrationality of collective choice, civil insurrections, and rights, and he is currently studying the democratic and human rights consequences of non-state actors including militias, non-governmental organizations and transnational corporations. His most recent book: Agents of Atrocity: Leaders, Followers, and the Violation of Human Rights in Civil Wars.
Michael Moody: A Hippocratic Oath for Philanthropists
Dr. Michael Moody, of Moody Philanthropic Consulting, is a cultural sociologist whose work focuses on the theory and practice of philanthropy, and on the analysis of advocacy professional, political culture, and public policy debates. His work includes Understanding Philanthropy: Its Meaning and Mission (with Robert L. Payton).
Mark Snyder: Working for the Common Good: Individuals and Groups Address the Challenges Facing the World
Dr. Snyder, of the University of Minnesota, studies a variety of social psychological processes, including the roots of volunteerism, particularly the motivations of those who volunteer and the reasons why these motivations do, and do not, sustain them over time. His work related to volunteerism includes Cooperation In Modern Society: Promoting The Welfare Of Communities, States and Organizations (with M. Van Vugt , T. Tyler, & A. Biel).
