In Praise of Ineffectiveness

Philosophia 52 (5):1301-1316 (2024)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Effective altruism implies that we should donate to an asteroid deflection program at the expense of saving a nearby child’s life. I argue that anyone who finds this result counterintuitive has prima facie reason to reject, or at least doubt that their own values commit them to, effective altruism.

Categories

Add categories

Keywords

Reprint years

DOI

10.1007/s11406-024-00804-7

Other Versions

No versions found

Links

PhilArchive

    This entry is not archived by us. If you are the author and have permission from the publisher, we recommend that you archive it. Many publishers automatically grant permission to authors to archive pre-prints. By uploading a copy of your work, you will enable us to better index it, making it easier to find.

    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 104,218

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

My notes

Similar books and articles

In Praise of Ineffectiveness.Peter Seipel - 2025 - Philosophia 52 (5):1301-1316.
In Defense of Sophisticated Theories of Welfare.Benjamin Yelle - 2016 - Philosophia 44 (4):1409-1418.
Ethics for everyday heroes – from Utilitarianism to Effective Altruism.Jakub Synowiec - 2016 - Ethics and Bioethics (in Central Europe) 6 (3-4).
Solidarity Over Charity: Mutual Aid as a Moral Alternative to Effective Altruism.Savannah Pearlman - 2023 - Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal 33 (2):167-199.
Effective Altruism and Anti-Capitalism: An Attempt at Reconciliation.Joshua Kissel - 2017 - Essays in Philosophy 18 (1):68-90.
Effective Altruism and its Critics.Iason Gabriel - 2016 - Journal of Applied Philosophy 33 (3):457-473.
A State of Besire.Iskra Fileva - 2021 - Philosophia 49 (5):1973-1979.
The Economics of Morality.Dillon Bowen - 2016 - Journal of Practical Ethics 4 (1).
Effective Altruism’s Underspecification Problem.Travis Timmerman - 2019 - In Hilary Greaves & Theron Pummer, Effective Altruism: Philosophical Issues. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 166-183.
Effective Altruism and Extreme Poverty.Fırat Akova - 2020 - Dissertation, University of Warwick

Analytics

Added to PP
2025-02-10

Downloads
10 (#1,539,882)

6 months
10 (#366,470)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Peter Seipel
University of South Carolina

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

Why We Should Reject S.Derek Parfit - 1984 - In Reasons and Persons. Oxford, GB: Oxford University Press.
In Defense of Fanaticism.Hayden Wilkinson - 2022 - Ethics 132 (2):445-477.
Ethics and Intuitions.Peter Singer - 2005 - The Journal of Ethics 9 (3-4):331-352.
Whether and Where to Give.Theron Pummer - 2016 - Philosophy and Public Affairs 44 (1):77-95.
The Moral Demands of Affluence.Garrett Cullity - 2004 - Oxford, GB: Oxford University Press on Demand.

View all 21 references / Add more references