scholarly journals This World Needs More (than One Kind of) Love. A Modest, Murdoch-Inspired Proposal to Take the Heart in Effective Altruism More Seriously

2022 ◽  
pp. 97-120
Author(s):  
Mara-Daria Cojocaru
Keyword(s):  
Effective Altruism

Effective Altruism

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Animal Welfare ◽  
Poverty Alleviation ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
Global Poverty ◽  
Global Community ◽  
Helping Others ◽  
The World ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Effective Altruism

The effective altruism movement consists of a growing global community of people who organize significant parts of their lives around two key ideas, represented in its name. Altruism: If we use a significant portion of the resources in our possession—whether money, time, or talents—with a view to helping others, we can improve the world considerably. Effectiveness: When we do put such resources to altruistic use, it is crucial to focus on how much good this or that intervention is reasonably expected to do per unit of resource expended (for example, per dollar donated). While global poverty is a widely used case study in introducing and motivating effective altruism, if the ultimate aim is to do the most good one can with the resources expended, it is far from obvious that global poverty alleviation is highest priority cause area. In addition to ranking possible poverty-alleviation interventions against one another, we can also try to rank interventions aimed at very different types of outcome against one another. This includes, for example, interventions focusing on animal welfare or future generations. The scale and organization of the effective altruism movement encourage careful dialogue on questions that have perhaps long been there, throwing them into new and sharper relief, and giving rise to previously unnoticed questions. In the present volume, the first of its kind, a group of internationally recognized philosophers, economists, and political theorists contribute in-depth explorations of issues that arise once one takes seriously the twin ideas of altruistic commitment and effectiveness.

Biased Benevolence: The Perceived Morality of Effective Altruism Across Social Distance

2021 ◽  
pp. 014616722110027
Author(s):  
Kyle Fiore Law ◽  
Dylan Campbell ◽  
Brendan Gaesser
Keyword(s):  
Relationship Quality ◽  
Social Distance ◽  
Alternative Explanation ◽  
Cooperative Behavior ◽  
Physical Distance ◽  
Moral Judgments ◽  
The Social ◽  
Effective Altruism ◽  
Quality Study ◽  
Matched Study

Is altruism always morally good, or is the morality of altruism fundamentally shaped by the social opportunity costs that often accompany helping decisions? Across four studies, we reveal that in cases of realistic tradeoffs in social distance for gains in welfare where helping socially distant others necessitates not helping socially closer others with the same resources, helping is deemed as less morally acceptable. Making helping decisions at a cost to socially closer others also negatively affects judgments of relationship quality (Study 2) and in turn, decreases cooperative behavior with the helper (Study 3). Ruling out an alternative explanation of physical distance accounting for the effects in Studies 1 to 3, social distance continued to impact moral acceptability when physical distance across social targets was matched (Study 4). These findings reveal that attempts to decrease biases in helping may have previously unconsidered consequences for moral judgments, relationships, and cooperation.

scholarly journals CHARITY. EFFECTIVE ALTRUISM

2021 ◽  
Vol 229 (3) ◽  
pp. 342-352
Author(s):  
ALYONA A. BATURINA ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Movement ◽  
Good Thing ◽  
Effective Altruism

Many households donate money emotionally and thoughtlessly. They believe that they are doing a good thing, but in most cases they are only doing harm. The article examines such a social movement as effective altruism, which is designed to solve this problem, is designed to make households donate money wisely and generally treat charity more rationally.

scholarly journals The Ethical, Political and Economic Challenges of Effective Altruism

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-76
Author(s):  
Mateusz Kucz ◽  
Piotr Rosół
Keyword(s):  
Positive Impact ◽  
Critical Evaluation ◽  
The Political ◽  
Consensus Building ◽  
Ethical Values ◽  
Political Consequences ◽  
Ethical Position ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Effective Altruism ◽  
Good Starting Point

This paper presents a critical evaluation of ethical and philosophical concerns about the effective altruism as an ethical position. Effective altruists claim that one of our important ethical obligations is to do the most good possible, with the biggest possible positive impact. This impact should be measured with rational tools and by evaluating the effectiveness of our actions. At first glance, this might seem as a consensus building position, a good starting point for building a community of people wanting to change the world for the better. In our paper, we present some difficulties which are connected with such a way of thinking about charity and an ethical obligation to donate. We discuss the problem of the commercialization of ethical values, understanding effectiveness, agreeing about goals, as well as the political consequences of effective altruism understood as an ethical position.

Beyond Moral Efficiency: Effective Altruism and Theorizing about Effectiveness

Utilitas ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-32
Author(s):  
Federico Zuolo
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Structural Change ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Conceptual Analysis ◽  
Practical Challenge ◽  
Effective Altruism

AbstractIn this article I provide a conceptual analysis of an underexplored issue in the debate about effective altruism: its theory of effectiveness. First, I distinguish effectiveness from efficiency and claim that effective altruism understands effectiveness through the lens of efficiency. Then, I discuss the limitations of this approach in particular with respect to the charge that it is incapable of supporting structural change. Finally, I propose an expansion of the notion of effectiveness of effective altruism by referring to the debate in political philosophy about realism and the practical challenge of normative theories. I argue that effective altruism, both as a social movement and as a conceptual paradigm, would benefit from clarifying its ideal, taking into account the role of institutions, and expanding its idea of feasibility.

Severe Poverty as an Unjust Emergency

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Ashford
Keyword(s):  
Global Justice ◽  
Recent Literature ◽  
The Other ◽  
Substantial Proportion ◽  
Peter Singer ◽  
Effective Altruism ◽  
The One

On the one hand, recent literature on global justice urges us to correct features of global structures that contribute to the persistence of severe poverty. On the other, Peter Singer has argued that our obligations to donate to agencies such as Oxfam are at least as stringent as the obligation to rescue a child we happened to pass who is drowning in a pond. His argument has triggered a movement, known as “effective altruism,” which encourages people to donate a substantial proportion of their income to the most effective NGOs and advises them on how they can do the most good with their money. This paper examines the debate between these two positions and argues for a pluralist view, according to which duties to correct global injustice should be seen as back-up duties to those duties of aid which (as Singer rightly argues) are of the utmost moral urgency.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document