Don't Become an Effective Altruist

A Letter to a Young Philosopher: Don't Become an Effective Altruist.

This presentation is a contribution to a collective project that began at an animal law and policy summit in February 2020. The project is a response to the accounts of animal activists (sanctuary managers, directors of non-profits dedicated to ending factory farming, vegan educators and directors of veganism-oriented public health groups, etc.) of how effective altruism-directed giving had deprived them of significant funding. A group of academics and activists decided that they would push back by each writing a letter, as if to an effective altruist, explaining how they thought effective altruism (EA) was problematic. The letter on which the current presentation based is written as if to a philosophy postgraduate who is contemplating working with an EA-affiliated organization post-DPhil. The letter distinguishes what gets called the institutional critique of EA, a critique to which many effective altruists have responded, from what might be called the philosophical critique of EA, and it focuses on developing and defending the latter line of criticism. Its illustrations are of EA in relation to animal advocacy, though its philosophical argument bears on EA quite generally.

Suggested Readings:

• Philosophical Critiques of Effective Altruism by Jeff McMahan

• Stop the Robot Apocalypse by Amia Srinivasan

The talk for this discussion will be presented by Alice Crary, University Distinguished Professor at the New School for Social Research, and visiting fellow at Regent's Park College, Oxford. Thanks to Alice Crary, the attendees, and Ashley Singh for hosting on behalf of Oxford Public Philosophy.