an act may be directly altruistic, while its rational selfish dimension is indirect; a construct developed from hindsight. The moment of the act can be completely altruistic, without a positivistic rational knowing that it returns to you. it may be a hope, or something that usually does happen, but is doesn't have to happen. in fact, should others not commit to the altruistic act (which they might), the rational return collapses. so the individual act is altruistic; the rational return, a leap of faith, faith in the others doing the same thing. so from the collective view, it is rationalistic, but on the individual level it is not. infact, having this collective viewpoint, rationally, on the individual level when i would not contribute, my calculus is better: i have no investment, while enjoying full return (ie. freeriding). in turn, rationalizing this to the collective level, this would destroy the benificial system. thus, while having this system is rationally better for everyone, and can be individually rationalised by means of construct, on the strictly individual level the act is actually altruistic. the construct is a leap of faith, and thus, in itself, not rational. pure rationality would actually destroy the system. pure altruism on the other hand, would not. in these matters, we are, infact, rationalising altruism from a hindsight perpective.
[the problem of freeriding]