How to be an Effective Altruist

Peter Singer shows how living altruistically often leads to greater personal fulfillment than living for oneself.

A charity event presented by London Thinks, Effective Altruism and Giving What We Can in aid of the Against Malaria Foundation.

Peter Singer‘s ideas have been disturbing our complacency ever since the appearance of Animal Liberation. Now he directs our attention to a new movement in which his own ideas have played a crucial role: effective altruism.

Effective altruism is built upon the simple but profound idea that living a fully ethical life involves doing the “most good you can do.” Such a life requires an 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.

Peter Singer shows how living altruistically often leads to greater personal fulfillment than living for oneself.

His most recent book is, The Most Good You Can Do, which helps to develop the challenges Singer has made 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.

The event will be chaired by philosopher, Nigel Warburton.

Register to tell a friend about this lecture.

Comments

If you would like to comment about this lecture, please register here.

©2003-2006 Niminim Limited. Created by

Any ad revenue is entirely reinvested into the Lecture List's operating fund