When I recently discussed effective altruism with fellow students, I heard similar objections. “Isn’t effective altruism empty?”, they asked. I definitely get them: just like deBoer argues, “everyone who has ever wanted to do good has wanted to do good well”.
The consensus-approved definition of effective altruism as “using evidence and reason to figure out how to benefit others as much as possible, and taking action on that basis” may have its merits in introducing effective altruism to those who are new to it. But it may, as it did to my fellow students, also sound meaningless. They wonder: what does effective altruism even do that others don’t do (or do less of)?
Perhaps we need a new definition of effective altruism, one that better emphasizes what distinguishes effective altruism from other social and intellectual movements. What is particularly distinctive about effective altruism for example, is perhaps not just its exceptional commitment to evidence-based interventions to increase wellbeing, but, even more so, its willingness to consider alternative goals and alternative courses of actions. So perhaps effective altruists need to bring out this aspect of effective altruism more whenever they are introducing effective altruism to those who are new to it.
When I recently discussed effective altruism with fellow students, I heard similar objections. “Isn’t effective altruism empty?”, they asked. I definitely get them: just like deBoer argues, “everyone who has ever wanted to do good has wanted to do good well”.
The consensus-approved definition of effective altruism as “using evidence and reason to figure out how to benefit others as much as possible, and taking action on that basis” may have its merits in introducing effective altruism to those who are new to it. But it may, as it did to my fellow students, also sound meaningless. They wonder: what does effective altruism even do that others don’t do (or do less of)?
Perhaps we need a new definition of effective altruism, one that better emphasizes what distinguishes effective altruism from other social and intellectual movements. What is particularly distinctive about effective altruism for example, is perhaps not just its exceptional commitment to evidence-based interventions to increase wellbeing, but, even more so, its willingness to consider alternative goals and alternative courses of actions. So perhaps effective altruists need to bring out this aspect of effective altruism more whenever they are introducing effective altruism to those who are new to it.