What Is Effective Altruism As A Philosophy And Social...

Peter Singer, author of The Most Good You Can Do, defines effective altruism as â€Å"a philosophy and social movement which applies evidence and reason to working out the most effective ways to improve the world† (Singer, 2015, p. 4-5). Given this definition, who are effective altruists? They are individuals who wish to make positive contributions to society by considering their course of action in an objective manner. To make this clearer, Singer contrasts effective altruists from â€Å"warm glow givers† (Singer, 2015, p. 5). Warm glow givers donate to charities to feel good without truly understanding how their donations are utilized to help people. Hence, these givers will offer their donations not to the most pressing causes, but to causes that appeal to their heart. On the other hand, effective altruists do not immediately act based on their emotions. Instead, they take a moment to step back and critically analyze if a certain action will help as much people as th ey hope it will. In short, they want to target the most urgent issues by maximizing whatever resources they have for the benefit of a larger group of people. Since effective altruism is a movement aimed at helping the most people, who are these people that altruists hope to help? It is clear to me from this chapter that so far, the goal of effective altruism is to uplift the poor. In this chapter, Singer states that money will be utilized best if it is directed towards uplifting the needy in developing countries.Show MoreRelatedSinger s Proposal Of Effective Altruism904 Words   |  4 PagesSinger’s proposal of effective altruism is a combined philosophical and social movement that seeks to apply empirical evidence and human reasoning to find the most effective solution to better the world. 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