Doing good badly? Philosophical issues related to effective altruism

Thesis

Suppose you want to do as much good as possible. What should you do? According to members of the effective altruism movement—which has produced much of the thinking on this issue and counts several moral philosophers as its key protagonists—we should prioritise among the world’s problems by assessing their scale, solvability, and neglectedness. Once we’ve done this, the three top priorities, not necessarily in this order, are (1) aiding the world’s poorest people by providing life-saving m...

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Authors: Plant, M

• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: Hilary Greaves; moral philosophy; William MacAskill; cause prioritisation; happiness; saving lives; Peter Singer; effective altruism
• Subjects: Ethics