RUTGER: I see myself as a pluralist. Itās fine to rely on the full spectrum of human emotions and motivations. Humans are a mixed bag, right? So, we are partially motivated sometimes by things such as compassion, empathy, and altruism, which is wonderful. But we canāt solely rely on that to make this world a wildly better place.
Peter, youāre obviously the founder of the Effective Altruism movement, a movement that I admire. At the same time, though, I feel itās a bit limited in its reach because many of the effective altruists Iāve spoken to are a bit strange and weird. Theyāre mainly motivated by this yearning to do good and help others. They are born altruists. A lot of them became vegan when they were very young. Many of them reacted instantly when they read your essay, Famine, Affluence and Morality, and I think what happened in the years around 2010 is that these people discovered one another on social media, and they realised, āHey, Iām not alone.ā But theyāve always been quite weird, which is fine, donāt get me wrong. Iām happy for them to do their work, but at the same time, I thought, perhaps thereās also a place for a broader movement for more āneurotypical peopleā that relies on other sources of motivation.
He expresses similar views in his recent interview with Peter Singer: