Effective Altruism

Effective Altruism is where my views about practical reason and utilitarianism become most directly practical. Practical reason asks what we have reason to do. Utilitarianism gives special importance to welfare, impartiality, and the consequences of action. Effective Altruism applies these ideas to the question of how we can use our money, careers, and political choices to do the most good.

This page brings together my thoughts about Effective Altruism.

Applying Reason to Doing Good

Effective Altruism is both an intellectual project and a practical project. It uses reason and evidence to work out how to do the most good, and then seeks to act on that basis.

EA systematically considers priorities such as global health and development, animal welfare, the long-term future, and risks from artificial intelligence. Applying reason and a broadly utilitarian perspective can point us towards areas that our ordinary instincts may neglect. Modern power, knowledge, and interconnectedness have greatly expanded the effects of human action. This means that distant people, non-human animals, future generations, and low-probability risks may matter far more than we naturally assume.

I regard EA as an alternative, and sometimes a complement, to conventional political involvement as a way of trying to change the world for the better.

Three EA Elements

I find it useful to distinguish three elements within EA thinking.

(1) Individual Altruism

The EA movement began with the idea that individuals should donate systematically to the most effective charities. Some global health and poverty interventions can appear to produce benefits around 100 times greater than the donor’s cost. The charity evaluator GiveWell recommends organisations such as the Against Malaria Foundation, whose bednet programme is supported by randomised controlled trials and is estimated to save a life for around £4,000. Giving What We Can encourages donors to pledge to give away 10% or more of their income, while 80,000 Hours encourages people to think carefully about how their careers can do the most good, either directly or through Earning to Give.

(2) Effective Philanthropy

Despite its thrifty beginnings, the EA movement has come to be supported by Good Ventures and other major donors, with EA-aligned committed philanthropic funds now of the order of £20 billion. This creates the challenge of how best to deploy large sums over time to do the most good. Funding is spread across EA cause areas, including a hits-based giving approach to some high-potential projects that may not succeed.

(3) Global Priorities

Beyond the question of how best to do philanthropy, EA also considers what humanity’s priorities should be. Working out what matters overall helps direct philanthropic funding, but EA’s larger effects may come from changing how global priorities are understood. EAs bring a distinctive universalist and rationalist perspective to global issues, while national politics often gives little attention to global poverty, animal welfare, and the long term. It may be that EA’s think tank role, through organisations such as Forethought Research and books such as What We Owe the Future and The Precipice, will be one of its main contributions.

Important EA Ideas

Effective Altruism has produced a number of important ideas:

• Altruism can be highly effective.

• Global health interventions can do extraordinary good at relatively low cost.

• Mental health is a major part of welfare.

• Factory farming causes immense suffering.

• The long-term future may be of enormous value.

• Extinction risk is one of humanity’s greatest threats.

• Artificial intelligence is a defining challenge.

There is much impressive thinking around EA, and I can see further important ideas emerging.

My Interest in EA

I came across the EA movement eight years ago through Peter Singer’s writing. It was a revelation because it matched my long-held belief that reason should be used more systematically in making good decisions, and my view that global poverty, animal welfare, and extinction risk should be major priorities.

I have enjoyed learning about EA ideas, and appreciate the 80,000 hours podcast and the EA forum. I enjoyed the EA introductory programme and have attended an EA Global Conference. I am interested in the broad range of EA ideas, but my particular focus is on EA’s philosophical and foundational issues.

Conclusion

Effective Altruism matters because it brings together three ideas that I regard as central: reason should guide action; welfare matters; and our concern should not stop at the boundaries of nation, species, or the present generation. It is not a complete answer to every moral and political question, and it needs judgement as well as calculation. But it is one of the clearest modern examples of philosophy becoming practical.