A Companion to Public Philosophy

17Public Philosophy in Effective Altruism

BRIAN BERKEY

1 Effective Altruism and Its Intellectual Roots

Effective altruism is a growing social movement whose members are committed to directing at least some portion of their money, time, and/or other resources in the ways that available evidence suggests will do the most good. The movement includes a number of organizations that aim to contribute in particular ways to helping and encouraging people to do the most good that they can. Giving What We Can (www.givingwhatwecan.org), founded by philosophers Toby Ord and William MacAskill in 2009, encourages individuals to pledge to donate at least 10% of their income over the course of their lives to effective charitable organizations, and provides recommendations of organizations to which they can donate. 80,000 Hours (https://80000hours.org), co‐founded by MacAskill and Benjamin Todd, provides information and advice for people who want to pursue career paths that will allow them to contribute as much as possible to addressing the world’s most morally important issues. GiveWell (www.givewell.org) produces a list of charitable organizations working on issues of global health and development that it has determined are highly effective, and provides in‐depth information on the process by which its recommendations are determined. And Animal Charity Evaluators (https://animalcharityevaluators.org) does similar work, but focuses on organizations that aim to reduce the suffering of nonhuman ...