The Most Good You Can Do: How Effective Altruism Is Changing Ideas About Living EthicallyYale University Press, 2015 M04 7 - 228 pages An argument for putting sentiment aside and maximizing the practical impact of our donated dollars: "Powerful, provocative" (Nicholas Kristof, The New York Times). Peter Singer's books and ideas have been disturbing our complacency ever since the appearance of Animal Liberation. Now he directs our attention to a challenging new movement in which his own ideas have played a crucial role: effective altruism. Effective altruism is built upon the simple but profoundly unsettling idea that living a fully ethical life involves doing the "most good you can do." Such a life requires a rigorously unsentimental view of charitable giving: to be a worthy recipient of our support, an organization must be able to demonstrate that it will do more good with our money or our time than other options open to us. Singer introduces us to an array of remarkable people who are restructuring their lives in accordance with these ideas, and shows how, paradoxically, living altruistically often leads to greater personal fulfillment than living for oneself. Doing the Most Good develops the challenges Singer has made, in the New York Times and Washington Post, to those who donate to the arts, and to charities focused on helping our fellow citizens, rather than those for whom we can do the most good. Effective altruists are extending our knowledge of the possibilities of living less selfishly, and of allowing reason, rather than emotion, to determine how we live. Doing the Most Good offers new hope for our ability to tackle the world's most pressing problems. |
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The Most Good You Can Do: How Effective Altruism Is Changing Ideas about ... Peter Singer No preview available - 2015 |
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Common terms and phrases
affluent amount animal suffering asked benefits Bernard Williams better blindness blog career causes chapter Charity Navigator Cheng Yen child climate change cost Derek Parfit developing countries difference dollars donating a kidney donors earning to give effective altruists effective charities emotional empathy estimate example existential risk extreme poverty funds GiveWell global poor happiness harm Henry Spira Holden Karnofsky human extinction hundred idea impact income intentionally left blank interventions Jeff kidney Kidney Donation less lives million moral motivation museum Nick Bostrom nonhuman one’s organizations outcome Oxfam Oxford percent person Peter Singer philosophy planet possible Poverty Action Practical Ethics prevent Princeton programs projects question reason response Rhema sacrifice Sidgwick someone speciesism spend stranger Sue Rabbitt Roff thousand tion Toby Ord Trolley Problem Tzu Chi United University Press utilitarian York