Filantropía democrática y sentimientos morales

Abstract

The following article analizes the moral sentiments attached to volunteer work as a civic practice which links individualism and altruism. I consider individualism as the moral center of contemporary culture, whereas altruism is an extraordinary behaviour, both in the moral and the social sense. I have studied the motivations of formal volunteerism, leaving aside informal help. I have found three discourses that have been considered as ideal types, even though in all of them individualism and altruism are intertwined. The so-called individualistic language, the Christian one and the civic one express the contemporary moral languages, which contain a specific conception of the social ties and the moral sentiments that are adscribed to it.