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 organization 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 fulfillment than living for oneself. The Most Good You Can Do develops the challenges Singer has made 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.

Peter Singer is a renowned philosopher, professor, and author. In 2005 Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world, and the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute ranked him third among global thought leaders for 2013. Peter has written, coauthored, edited, or coedited more than forty books, including Practical Ethics, The Expanding Circle, Rethinking Life and Death, The Ethics of What We Eat (with Jim Mason), and The Most Good You Can Do. His works have appeared in more than twenty-five languages. Peter was born in Melbourne, Australia, in 1946, and educated at the University of Melbourne and the University of Oxford. After teaching in England, the United States, and Australia, he has, since 1999, been Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics in the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University. Since 2005 he has combined that position with the position of Laureate Professor at the University of Melbourne, in the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies.