[FRIAM] Sen on altruism

[Merle Lefkoff]

If you guys haven't read Amartya Sen on altruism, it's worth a look.  
The "seminal work" is Development as Freedom.  Sen argues that sympathy 
and altruism are not enough to effect change.  Commitment (to action) is 
the key.   I was recently co-faculty at a retreat with a female Rabbi 
who just published a book on the Germans who helped Jews during WWII at 
risk to their own lives (many died as a result). 

Roger:  these were (anecdotal) and individual acts of courage from 
otherwise ordinary people and hardly the result of German cultural 
conditioning---or was it?  And please! find the research.

Merle Lefkoff