Journal of Iranian Social Studies

Abstract Social  responsibility  shows  that humans,  as  social beings,  cannot be  indifferent  to  the  lives of their fellows. In the relationship altruistic actions and social thought, it should be said that  these  actions  have  always  been  a  suitable  subject  for  thinking  throughout  the  history  of social  thought. Sociologist Durkheim, moral philosopher Singer, and political philosopher Žižek are among the thinkers who have theorized about the social responsibility of altruism. The present study aims to analyze the social responsibility of altruism in the intellectual system of these three thinkers with a comparative approach.
This research was conducted with a comparative approach, following the qualitative tradition, and was case-based, with a small number of cases, or small N (focusing on three thinkers).
After examining the works of these three thinkers, 10 components (the problematic of the thinker, the importance and necessity of social justice, the thinker's association and empathy with charity and philanthropy, the negative aspects of charity and philanthropy, etc.) were identified and analyzed in a comparative manner.
Drawing the intellectual system of the three selected thinkers on a continuum shows that Singer (with a positive, affirmative, optimistic, and hopeful approach) is placed on the right, Žižek (with a refusal, aggressive, negativity, and pessimistic approach) is placed on the left, and Durkheim (with a conditional, critical, and moral approach) is placed in the middle.