The Most Good You Can Do: How Effective Altruism is Changing Ideas About Living Ethically
Peter Singer’s books and ideas have been “disturbing our complacency ever since the appearance of Animal Liberation“. Now he directs our attention to a new movement in which his own ideas have played a crucial role: effective altruism.
Effective altruism is built upon the simple but profound idea that living a fully ethical life involves doing the “most good you can do.” Such a life requires an unsentimental view of charitable giving: to be a worthy recipient of our support, an organisation must be able to demonstrate that it will do more good with our money or our time than other options open to us.
Singer introduces us to an array of remarkable people who are restructuring their lives in accordance with these ideas, and shows how living altruistically often leads to greater personal fulfilment than living for oneself. These are not saints or eccentrics, Singer argues; they are rational, compassionate people who have followed an argument to its conclusion.
The Most Good You Can Do develops the challenges Singer has made, in the New York Times and Washington Post, to those who donate to the arts, and to charities focused on helping our fellow citizens, rather than those for whom we can do the most good. Effective altruists are extending our knowledge of the possibilities of living less selfishly, and of allowing reason, rather than emotion, to determine how we live. The Most Good You Can Do offers new hope for our ability to tackle the world’s most pressing problems.
Most people who give to charity choose their causes for emotional reasons: a friend ran a marathon for a particular organisation, or a moving image appeared in a fundraising appeal, or the cause connects to something in their personal history.
Peter Singer argues that this is not enough. In a world of finite resources and near-infinite need, we have a moral obligation to direct our giving where it will do the most measurable good, even when that means setting aside sentiment.
Giving without evidence of impact is wrong
The book is also a challenge to the fundraising and charity sector. Singer is unsparing about giving that is directed by reputation, social obligation, or institutional prestige rather than evidence of impact.
He questions donations to arts institutions and local charities when the same money could save lives in the developing world. He challenges the emotional logic that fundraisers often deploy, and asks whether it is morally defensible to move donors with a single compelling story rather than with evidence of systemic need.
These arguments are contested. The book has been criticised for its neglect of the value of civic loyalty and local institutions, and for the implicit assumption that all suffering is commensurable across borders and cultures. Effective altruism has also been criticised, or rather some of its proponents have been criticised, such as in the case of with the FTX/Sam Bankman-Fried scandal.
But as a challenge to comfortable giving, The Most Good You Can Do is essential reading for any serious fundraiser. Understanding the logic of effective altruism, and where it is right, and where it falls short, has become a prerequisite for engaging with the most active and questioning donors of our generation.
About Peter Singer
Peter Singer is the founder of The Life You Can Save, the organisation to which the book gave rise. He is Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University and Laureate Professor at the University of Melbourne. He is the author of more than twenty books, including Animal Liberation, Practical Ethics, and The Life You Can Save. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential, and most controversial, moral philosophers of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
WATCH: Peter Singer on the why and how of effective altruism
Reviews
“Singer’s argument is powerful, provocative, and, I think, basically right. The world would be a better place if we were as tough-minded in how we donate money as in how we make it.”
Nicholas Kristof, New York Times
“We need thinkers such as Singer to test our intuitions. The encouraging message is that we do have the resources to be better.”
Stephen Cave, Financial Times
“The Most Good You Can Do should be of interest not only to committed effective altruists, but to anyone who cares about the effectiveness of their charitable activities. A valuable contribution to the philosophical literature.”
Travis Timmerman, The Philosophical Quarterly
“From charity to career choice to consumerism, this book will revolutionise how you think about doing good.”
Will MacAskill, author of Doing Good Better
“An optimistic and compelling look at the positive impact that giving can have on the world.”
Bill and Melinda Gates
Related books on UK Fundraising
- Strangers Drowning (MacFarquhar) for a more nuanced exploration of the psychology of extreme altruism;
- Does Altruism Exist? (Wilson) for the scientific perspective;
- Generation Impact (Goldseker & Moody) for how the next generation of donors is applying similar impact-focused thinking;
- It Ain’t What You Give (Fiennes) for the evidence-based approach applied to UK giving.
