The Rules of Rescue

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In The Rules of Rescue, Theron Pummer argues that we are often morally required to engage in effective altruism, directing altruistic efforts in ways that help the most. Even when the personal sacrifice involved makes it morally permissible not to help at all, he contends, it often remains wrong to provide less help rather than more. He argues that the ubiquity of opportunities to help distant strangers threatens to make morality extremely demanding, and that it is only thanks to adequate permissions grounded in considerations of cost and autonomy that we may pursue our own plans and projects. He concludes that many of us are required to provide no less help over our lives than we would have done if we were effective altruists.

Theron Pummer is a Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of St Andrews, and Director of the Centre for Ethics, Philosophy and Public Affairs. Previously he was a Junior Research Fellow in Philosophy at the University of Oxford. He received his PhD from the University of California, San Diego. Pummer's articles have been published in such journals as The Journal of Philosophy, Ethics, Philosophy and Public Affairs, Analysis, Philosophical Studies, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, and Philosophical Review.