A new book about the origins of Effective Altruism
5 days ago
- #Effective Altruism
- #Peter Singer
- #Philosophy
- Peter Singer, a vegetarian and radical thinker at Oxford in 1971, challenged traditional philosophy with practical concerns about global suffering.
- Singer's famous thought experiment: If you can save a drowning child at minimal cost, you should, highlighting Western indifference to global suffering.
- Effective altruism (EA) emerged from Singer's ideas, focusing on maximizing resource impact for the greatest good, inspiring organizations like Giving What We Can.
- EA has seen extreme commitments (e.g., adopting 20 children, donating excessively) and scandals (e.g., Sam Bankman-Fried's fraud).
- EA's intellectual roots lie in Singer's 1971 article 'Famine, Affluence, and Morality,' arguing affluent Westerners have moral obligations to global suffering.
- EA critiques structural issues (e.g., corruption) but prioritizes practical, evidence-based solutions over ideological debates.
- Originally apolitical, EA now navigates polarized politics, aiming to remain neutral to avoid alienating potential supporters.
- EA's expansion into long-termism (e.g., AI, pandemics) attracted Silicon Valley figures, sometimes misaligned with its poverty-alleviation origins.
- Scandals like Bankman-Fried's fraud exposed EA's vulnerability to bad actors, prompting lessons about reliance on wealthy individuals.