Effective altruism

Effective altruism is the project of using evidence and reason to find out how to do the most good and to act on these findings.

I think this is slightly better than CEA's statement

Effective altruism is about using evidence and reason to figure out how to benefit others as much as possible, and taking action on that basis.

But I'd still want perhaps to moderate this a bit, if there's a way of doing so while still being clear and concise

"to find out how to do the most good"

... We can only aim to figure out how to do the most good. We will never know with certainty.

"how to do the most good and to act on these findings"

... This seems better than CEA's “as much as possible” which suggests that we must be completely self-sacrificing.

...But still 'the most good' seems a bar too high. Perhaps something like “as much good as possible, to the best of our knowledge, given the amount of our resources we are willing and able to contribute.” ?

MacAskill, William (2019) The definition of effective altruism, in Hilary Greaves & Theron Pummer (eds.) Effective Altruism: Philosophical Issues, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 10–28.

MacAskill, William & Theron Pummer (2020) Effective altruism, in Hugh LaFollette (ed.) International Encyclopedia of Ethics, Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley.

BibliographyFurther reading

80,000 Hours (2021) Effective altruism: Ten global problems, 80,000 Hours.

Singer, Peter (2019)Harris, Keiran & Robert Wiblin (2021) ForewordEffective altruism in a nutshell, in Hilary Greaves & Theron Pummer (eds.) Effective Altruism: Philosophical Issues80,000 Hours, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. v–vi.October 18.

Wiblin, Robert (2021)Singer, Peter (2019) Effective altruism in a nutshellForeword, 80,000 Hours

80,000 Hours (2021) in Hilary Greaves & Theron Pummer (eds.) Effective altruism: 10 global problemsAltruism: Philosophical Issues, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. v–vi.

Wiblin, Robert (2021) Effective altruism in a nutshell, 80,000 Hours

80,000 Hours (2021) Effective Altruism: 10 global problems

Issa Rice et al (2020) Timeline of effective altruism, Timelines Wiki.

Greaves, Hilary & Theron Pummer (2019) Introduction, in Hilary Greaves & Theron Pummer (eds.) Effective altruism: philosophical issuesAltruism: Philosophical Issues, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 1–9.

Berkey, Brian (2020)(2021) The philosophical core of effective altruism, Journal of Social Philosophy, forthcoming.vol. 52, pp. 92–113.

Bibliography

Berkey, Brian (2020) The philosophical core of effective altruism, Journal of Social Philosophy, forthcoming.

Greaves, Hilary & Theron Pummer (2019) Introduction, in Hilary Greaves & Theron Pummer (eds.) Effective altruism: philosophical issues, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 1–9.

Issa Rice et al (2020) Timeline of effective altruism, Timelines Wiki.

Singer, Peter (2019) Foreword, in Hilary Greaves & Theron Pummer (eds.) Effective Altruism: Philosophical Issues, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. v–vi.

MacAskill, William (2019) The definition of effective altruism, in Hilary Greaves & Theron Pummer (eds.) Effective Altruism: Philosophical Issues, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 10–28.

MacAskill, William & Theron Pummer (2020) Effective altruism, in Hugh LaFollette (ed.) International Encyclopedia of Ethics, Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley.

Related entries

definition of effective altruism | history of effective altruism

Effective altruism is the project of using evidence and reason to find out how to do the most good and to act on these findings.

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