Effective Altruism In The Most Good You Can Do By Peter Singer

Altruism, despite the fact that a human conduct, needs extraordinary expressions to convey what needs be on all levels of unselfishness, for example, love and regard, since benevolence is regularly mistaken for any benevolent conduct made by living animals, and we should not utilize this general term to depict specific practices and behaviours.

Altruism is a concept in which the individual sacrifices regard for themselves in the interest of another. The ethics of altruism state that a person should act in a matter where their self-sacrifice yields the greater well being on the whole. To put that statement in the form of a fundamental principle of rightness, an action is right if and only if (and because) the action brings a net-gain of well being to anyone except the individual performing the action. The altruistic mentality of an individual according to this moral theory means that any action that they undertake should be in the interest of others rather than themselves. The ethics of this concept also state that relationships of greater value to the individual carrying out an action should come second in priority to those they have with strangers since the close relationship has a much more meaningful connection to a person’s life. In these situations, the only morally correct way of acting is in the way that defeats the well being of the agent of an action for the sake of others.

Another example of how altruism can be viewed in today’s society can be seen in the works of Mother Teresa and her plethora of altruistic acts throughout the globe. Although her focus was in India where she persued her novitiate (training), her organization has opened over 500 centers around the world helping the dying and the destitute (Moore 2002, pg. x). She took in the “untouchables” of society and gave them care and made sure that they were comfortable. Mother Teresa is often used as the benchmark when determining whether a selfless act is truly altruistic.

Although our current way of life is in need of a revision in order to help others in need, I do not believe in a drastic revision as today’s societies already send aid to other countries and already have an altruistic mindset. However, the issue that remains is that today’s societies and people don’t

Peter Singer, author of The Most Good You Can Do, defines effective altruism as “a philosophy and social movement which applies evidence and reason to working out the most effective ways to improve the world” (Singer, 2015, p. 4-5). Given this definition, who are effective altruists? They are individuals who wish to make positive contributions to society by considering their course of action in an objective manner. To make this clearer, Singer contrasts effective altruists from “warm glow givers” (Singer, 2015, p. 5). Warm glow givers donate to charities to feel good without truly understanding how their donations are utilized to help people. Hence, these givers will offer their donations not to the most pressing causes, but to causes that appeal to their heart. On the other hand, effective altruists do not immediately act based on their emotions. Instead, they take a moment to step back and critically analyze if a certain action will help as much people as they hope it will. In short, they want to target the most urgent issues by maximizing whatever resources they have for the benefit of a larger group of people.

Altruism is a completely selfless act done for the sole purpose of helping of others. The purpose of altruism is to help and tend to the wellbeing of another citizen who may be in need of assistance. We help people because we want to make sure that all people are ok. Some people may also feel satisfaction because they have helped someone who needs it. In some cases we may not be altruistic because we may not want to feel out of place.

Why do people have the incentive to help others? How does doing such a thing benefit them? Do specific people help more than others, and why? Altruism is identified as the behaviour that benefits others at a personal cost to the performing individual (Wilson, D.S and Dugatkin, L.A, 1992). Altruism can be performed in many diverse ways, and could assist various people that are dealing with many different situations. Prosocial behaviour, however, is acknowledged as the actions that help other people or the entire society as a whole (Twenge, Ciarocco, Baumeister, & Bartels, 2007). In other words, prosocial behaviour could be defined as a way of helping people, that may result in the person who is helping, to personally give up their time, money or any sacrifices to be useful to the opposite person in need. Psychologists have suggested that this particular behaviour may be greater than the associated costs, concerning the human longing to belong to a group. It has also been said that helping accelerates group work and in turn, may be responsible for individuals having vast benefits for the long run (Twenge et al., 2007). Altruism and prosocial behaviour can be seen as the descriptions of helping people. The outcome of this essay will thoroughly explain the background of model of helping behaviour and how these factors are put into practice to make people likely to want to help others, as well as discussing the attributes of the helper and the kind of people who specifically tend

The artcile states that alturism(opposite of selfishness); selfless act, and provides three reasons of support. The professor explains that everything we learned in the past based on assumptions need to be re-examined and re-evaluated, and opposes each of author's reasons.

Ted Singer is a philosopher who discusses the topic of effective altruism during a Ted Talk to explore how people can do a better job of helping other people in need. Effective altruism is a philosophical and social movement that uses research coupled with logical thinking to find the most effective way to end world poverty and disease by encouraging people to donate to charities. I agree with Singer’s belief that we have a moral obligation to help others and that giving is not as hard or unnecessary as we perceive it to be. Part of the discussion about effective altruism involves equal consideration which is when you look at all forms of creatures and species on this earth and acknowledge that we all beings that feel pain, an experience that

3. They do not trigger the kind of jealousy or envy we often get when thinking about someone's material things

Altruism is defined when people express their feelings and actions to help others in an unselfish way. Altruism is an important feature of spiritual wellness, which improves health and longevity.

The subject of altruism has a long history of contention amongst academic researchers and religious scholars alike. The term itself originated in the 19th century, first coined by French philosopher, Auguste Comte. Since then however, there have been many different theories and evaluations regarding altruism. David Sloan Wilson, a distinguished Professor of Biological Sciences and Anthropology at Binghamton University, has attempted to provide a new insight into this topic, using his knowledge on some of the latest developments in evolutionary biology. In his work, Wilson successfully and succinctly examines and develops a clear understanding of how he understands altruism to have arisen and how it is maintained, giving reference to its occurrence in psychology, religion and economic environments, as well as how it affects people’s everyday lives and an explanation for pathological manifestations, lastly touching on the view of planetary altruism. However, he fails to address some questions regarding the validity of his proposed theories, namely how he supposes that altruistic groups arise in nature and why, if his theories are correct, the current world is not ruled by certain highly altruistic groups such as the Hutterites or the Amish.

It is not a matter of who is responsible, but rather who is willing. Growing up in the church, I have learned that the size of the donation does not matter; it is the heart that gives. The article states that “effective altruism is not a plot to guilt the rich into asceticism,” an extreme rejection of worldly things, but rather maximize altruist efforts. Effective altruism does not designate any group responsible, but rather creates a mindset to inspire all economic classes to maximize their good. For example, the “1 percent rule” encourages the middle class - individuals whose income is greater than $52,000 a year - to donate 1% of their income to double the happiness of someone who makes equivalent to that 1%. Effective altruism also encourages

Batson, C. D. (1991). The Altruism Question: Toward a Social-Psychological Answer. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

One of which is by giving away money to charities, homeless people, and other people who are in desperate need. The article of “The Power of Charity: Does Giving Away Money Improve the Well-being of the Donor?” has shown in a study that giving away money to those who are in need can have tremendous effects on ourselves by psychological means. Tim Lomas and Pradnya K. Surana have stated that “Giving away money to others (the experimental group) significantly enhanced life satisfaction and self-esteem of [donors]” (229). This corroboration was a result of a prolonged study conducted between two groups of people. One group was the experimental group, and the other group was the control. The experimental group had to give away money to homeless and charities for three days. However, the control group had to spend money on themselves for the same period. The findings showed that the control group had suffered from an incremental anxiety over the period of the three days while the experimental group had no suffering of anxiety at all. (Lomas et al