Abstract

Inter-human cooperation has existed since the Paleolithic era, but its character has changed over time. Initially, it was instinctive, later forced, but nowadays it is voluntary. Already in the 18th century, Adam Smith wrote that society could not exist without cooperation. Human civilization was built by cooperating specialists supported by ever newer technologies. The subject of the article is the role of egoism and cooperation in human economic development throughout history. The research method used was a review of the literature of authors from various historical epochs, starting from antiquity and the Middle Ages, through the Renaissance, the first, second and third industrial revolution, up to the present day. The conducted research has shown that cooperation affects relationships between people and helps suppress the internal egoism of man, about which St. Augustine, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Hume, Malthus and even Charles Darwin wrote. The predominance of selfish or altruistic attitudes inevitably affected the development and collapse of many countries and even civilizations.

摘要

人类之间的合作从旧石器时代就已经存在，但随着时间的推移，其性质发生了变化。最初是本能的，后来是被迫的，但现在是自愿的。早在 18 世纪，亚当·斯密就写道，没有合作，社会就无法存在。人类文明是由不断更新的技术支持的合作专家建立的。这篇文章的主题是利己主义与合作在人类经济发展中的作用。使用的研究方法是回顾各个历史时期的作者的文献，从古代和中世纪开始，到文艺复兴、第一次、第二次和第三次工业革命，直到今天。进行的研究表明，合作会影响人与人之间的关系，并有助于抑制人的内部利己主义，圣奥古斯丁、马基雅维利、霍布斯、休谟、马尔萨斯甚至查尔斯·达尔文都写过。自私或利他态度的盛行，不可避免地影响到许多国家乃至文明的发展和崩溃。