Effective Altruism

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Modus.Ponens
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Effective Altruism

Post by Modus.Ponens »

Hello. :)

I came across the moral philosopher Peter Singer and the recent movement he and others helped create called effective altruism. The basic idea is to use reason to maximise the impact of our good will and our desire to help others, with the same donation. I'll leave three videos here that introduce the ideas of this movement, featuring Peter Singer himself. One short. One medium. And one long. Personaly, I recomend the medium length video, if you have the time.

Enjoy :)


-Short
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZgItfi4eJ4" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

-Medium
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Diuv3XZQXyc" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

-Long
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KA6Urc-zSCw" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
'This is peace, this is exquisite — the resolution of all fabrications; the relinquishment of all acquisitions; the ending of craving; dispassion; cessation; Unbinding.' - Jhana Sutta
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retrofuturist
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Re: Effective Altruism

Post by retrofuturist »

Greetings MP,

I watched the "short" and "medium" videos... they are excellent, and the medium one (the TEDTalk) is particularly inspiring. It is great to see reason, logic, mathematics, philosophy and economics being rightly recognized as vehicles for effective charity and altruistic good.

I had the pleasure of studying philosophy under Peter Singer at university... he is indeed a kind, rational, and lucid man.

Metta,
Paul. :)
"Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."
SarathW
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Re: Effective Altruism

Post by SarathW »

I haven't seen the video yet.
However we should contrast his ideas with the following if it is correct.

=========

While that may be true, animal liberation is not the only subject of Singer's work. He also believes that parents should be given the choice to have their disabled babies killed after they are born. His argument is not about the right to terminate pregnancy based on the presence of a disabled foetus, although he does believe this as well, but the active killing of babies born with particular disabilities.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-08-15/y ... er/4199120" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
“As the lamp consumes oil, the path realises Nibbana”
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Polar Bear
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Re: Effective Altruism

Post by Polar Bear »

To learn more check out http://www.effectivealtruism.org/about-ea" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

:namaste:
"I don't envision a single thing that, when developed & cultivated, leads to such great benefit as the mind. The mind, when developed & cultivated, leads to great benefit."

"I don't envision a single thing that, when undeveloped & uncultivated, brings about such suffering & stress as the mind. The mind, when undeveloped & uncultivated, brings about suffering & stress."
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Re: Effective Altruism

Post by Mkoll »

I don't agree with all the points he presented in the TED talk, but his main one about using your head in deciding who to give to is spot on. Related to that point is a documentary called Poverty, Inc. which is mostly about the impact on local economies of developing countries caused by aid.
Namo tassa bhagavato arahato samma sambuddhassa
Namo tassa bhagavato arahato samma sambuddhassa
Namo tassa bhagavato arahato samma sambuddhassa
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Re: Effective Altruism

Post by DNS »

Paul Davy wrote: I had the pleasure of studying philosophy under Peter Singer at university... he is indeed a kind, rational, and lucid man.
:thumbsup: Cool, mudita for the luck / kamma of studying under him.

I'll have to check out these new videos and comment then. He is most known for Animal Liberation but was quite the modern philosopher with his utilitarian position (which of course is also shown in that book).
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Re: Effective Altruism

Post by Modus.Ponens »

Paul Davy wrote:Greetings MP,

I watched the "short" and "medium" videos... they are excellent, and the medium one (the TEDTalk) is particularly inspiring. It is great to see reason, logic, mathematics, philosophy and economics being rightly recognized as vehicles for effective charity and altruistic good.

I had the pleasure of studying philosophy under Peter Singer at university... he is indeed a kind, rational, and lucid man.

Metta,
Paul. :)
Hello, Paul.

You are one lucky man. :smile: There's something very likeable about Peter Singer.

Anyway, yes, the effective altruism approach to charity, or time investment, professional investment, etc, fascinated me. I had heard before of how our emotional intuitions betray our moral judgements. For example, charities know that to get the biggest amount of donations it's much better to present the case of one single child with a preventable illness than to say that there are 2 million children with the same preventable illness. Our brains are built to make moral judgements with a strong basis on concrete empathy and that's why a big number is not as compelling as one concrete heartbreaking case.

I've only just met this movement but I'm very curious to know more. Some forms of utilitarianism seem grotesque to me. But utilitarianism within the framework of inviolable democratic values and rights does seem like the most rational approach. I'm just begining my discovery of philosophy, so I'm sure I've got a lot to catch up to.

Metta
'This is peace, this is exquisite — the resolution of all fabrications; the relinquishment of all acquisitions; the ending of craving; dispassion; cessation; Unbinding.' - Jhana Sutta
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Re: Effective Altruism

Post by Modus.Ponens »

SarathW wrote:I haven't seen the video yet.
However we should contrast his ideas with the following if it is correct.

=========

While that may be true, animal liberation is not the only subject of Singer's work. He also believes that parents should be given the choice to have their disabled babies killed after they are born. His argument is not about the right to terminate pregnancy based on the presence of a disabled foetus, although he does believe this as well, but the active killing of babies born with particular disabilities.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-08-15/y ... er/4199120" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Hello, SarathW.

I haven't read his original argument although this article links to his original argument. Regardless, I do think that these moral views arise from the world view that everything is material and that there is no spiritual, non material, divine dimension to life. While in my private life I may be agnostic about this, public policies and rational inquiry in general should be based on the best evidence we have so far. And while many of us have enough experience with meditation to suspect that the world is more than just material, we have no evidence of it that we can present in the public square to make compelling arguments.

Therefore, it is natural that some moral views are shocking to us. And maybe a good way to go around this would be to someone with psychic powers to get in a lab and prove them. :tongue: :mrgreen:

Metta
'This is peace, this is exquisite — the resolution of all fabrications; the relinquishment of all acquisitions; the ending of craving; dispassion; cessation; Unbinding.' - Jhana Sutta
SarathW
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Re: Effective Altruism

Post by SarathW »

just finish watching the video.
It appears,he has some sort of an idea to save the world by managing the human birth.
The same time he got lot of compassion r animals and child disabled by a car accident!
I also felt whether he is trying to make people guilty of not giving.
He did not talk about the most pressing issue of charitable organisation that most of the donation are wasted in administration (some cases 90%) the balance never reach the needy.
However even if he save one life with his effort it is a better achievement than not taking any effort at all.
I wish him well with all his future activities.

I like Buddhist Global Releif. According to its website 90% of the donations reach the needy.
http://www.buddhistglobalrelief.org/index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
“As the lamp consumes oil, the path realises Nibbana”
sattva
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Re: Effective Altruism

Post by sattva »

I watched the middle video. Thanks MP! :anjali:
http://www.chatzy.com/25904628501622
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Modus.Ponens
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Re: Effective Altruism

Post by Modus.Ponens »

SarathW wrote:just finish watching the video.
It appears,he has some sort of an idea to save the world by managing the human birth.
The same time he got lot of compassion r animals and child disabled by a car accident!
I also felt whether he is trying to make people guilty of not giving.
He did not talk about the most pressing issue of charitable organisation that most of the donation are wasted in administration (some cases 90%) the balance never reach the needy.
However even if he save one life with his effort it is a better achievement than not taking any effort at all.
I wish him well with all his future activities.

I like Buddhist Global Releif. According to its website 90% of the donations reach the needy.
http://www.buddhistglobalrelief.org/index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
I may be interpreting him wrongly, but that's not his idea. His idea is to look at the world objectively, as if from the outside and considering that your suffering is equal to other people's suffering. And vice versa. So, if you had a fixed amount of money, you would want to help the largest amount of people possible. That is done by calculating the impact of your donation. And yes, in that process, there also has to be an objective evaluation of charity organizations. I think he recomends givewell.com as a "metacharity" that assesses how effective other charities are. (There is the problem of some charities being too big for a small number of people to be able to evaluate)

I don't see him worrying about population control. Otherwise he wouldn't propose to maximise the number of lives you can save, or help.

As for feeling guilty, erm, maybe a bit. I don't know. But I think it's natural to feel guilty while knowing you are enjoying a luxury that could instead be saving a person, or curing her of some illness.

:anjali:
'This is peace, this is exquisite — the resolution of all fabrications; the relinquishment of all acquisitions; the ending of craving; dispassion; cessation; Unbinding.' - Jhana Sutta
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Re: Effective Altruism

Post by DNS »

I've been a fan of Singer and effective altruism for some time. And I tend to lean toward philosophical utilitarianism too (although not to the extreme).

For example, the popular saying, "give a man a fish, feed him for a day; teach a man to fish, you feed him for life" is a good saying and is a form of effective altruism, doing the greater good, for the greater number of days and potentially people.

The Buddha was a sort of effective altruist. He could have engaged in local charitable works (and of course he did some), but he focused on universal teachings; the Dhamma, for the greater good of getting the most out of suffering. He provided a framework, a Path leading to the cessation of suffering for potentially thousands, millions, perhaps billions.
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Re: Effective Altruism

Post by Polar Bear »

There is also a coursera course on Effective altruism for free here https://www.coursera.org/learn/altruism/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
"I don't envision a single thing that, when developed & cultivated, leads to such great benefit as the mind. The mind, when developed & cultivated, leads to great benefit."

"I don't envision a single thing that, when undeveloped & uncultivated, brings about such suffering & stress as the mind. The mind, when undeveloped & uncultivated, brings about suffering & stress."
SarathW
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Re: Effective Altruism

Post by SarathW »

David N. Snyder wrote:I've been a fan of Singer and effective altruism for some time. And I tend to lean toward philosophical utilitarianism too (although not to the extreme).

For example, the popular saying, "give a man a fish, feed him for a day; teach a man to fish, you feed him for life" is a good saying and is a form of effective altruism, doing the greater good, for the greater number of days and potentially people.

The Buddha was a sort of effective altruist. He could have engaged in local charitable works (and of course he did some), but he focused on universal teachings; the Dhamma, for the greater good of getting the most out of suffering. He provided a framework, a Path leading to the cessation of suffering for potentially thousands, millions, perhaps billions.
:goodpost: David.
You conveyed the message more effectively than I was. :)
Perhaps Singer can move one step forward and ask people to be more virtues.
Giving does not limited to only material giving. (even though it is a short term solution)
A person can be a millionaire buy exploiting many people. Just giving out a small portion as donations doe not help the overall wellbeing.
Giving is like meditation. It is a 24 hour job. But we have to start it somewhere.
Buddha said giving Dhamma (or facilitation) is the highest giving.
“As the lamp consumes oil, the path realises Nibbana”
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