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‘Peter Singer’s status as a man of principles and towering intellect—a philosopher extraordinaire, if you will—is unrivalled in Australia.’Sydney Morning Herald‘Peter Singer is a public intellectual par excellence.’Monthly‘Peter Singer may be the most controversial philosopher alive; he is certainly among the most influential.’New Yorker‘Forty years on from Animal Liberation, Peter Singer is still challenging our complacency with his advocacy for new ideas and movements…In clear prose, Singer we...
What a weird book. "Effective altruism" sounded very interesting since it's true that tremendous resources are wasted on things that are known to be useless or harmful. This book is only vaguely about that. It functions OK as a discussion-starter on philosophical issues but I think it flops as a practical introduction to "the most good you can do." There is some good information on that but way too much of the book is devoted to dangerously irrelevant BS.Singer starts with, and repeatedly brings...
I found this such a miserable, difficult book to relate to.Peter Singer's argument - that we should maximise the amount of good we can do through our charity ("effective altruism") - is an aspiration he teaches us how to achieve through lifestyle choices and consciously donating to charities who offer the most value. In my opinion, by doing so he creates a radical manifesto for living an undoubtedly ethical (but not a good) life. For example: The chances of dying from a kidney transplant are 1/4...
5★Bill and Melinda Gates are quoted on the front cover saying this is “An optimistic and compelling look at the positive impact that giving can have on the world.”Singer himself says, “The most interesting question is whether effective altruists can become numerous enough to influence the giving culture of affluent nations. There are some promising signs that that may be starting to happen.”WOOHOO! I sure hope he’s right! Peter Singer, an Aussie (!) is a renowned philosopher, Princeton professor...
Over the past three decades, Peter Singer has been continuously jolting us out of our reverie by goading us to think about some of the most pressing issues plaguing humanity. He takes this entrenched habit of his a notch higher with his new book "The Most Good You Can Do". Deliberately provocative and dilemma inducing, this book provides a rousing flavor of what it means to lead a life characterized by 'effective altruism'.Himself, one of the founding fathers of this moralistic concept, Singer d...
I like the premise of this book, but I what I didn't like was the denigration of people who give only "small" amounts of their money to charities.On Page 5 of the book, the author states: "In many cases, the donation is so small - $10 or less - that if they stopped to think, they would realise that the cost of processing the donation is likely to exceed any benefit it brings to the charity."I would have thought people should be encouraged to give to charity. The cost of transferring money into t...
I will be debating Peter Singer next month at a forum and so I read this book to find its flaws and so perhaps because I was looking I found many. My main critique is that he claims that it is moral and acceptable to work in any lucrative industry so long as you give away your gains. So go into investment banking, make a ton of money and buy mosquito nets. But no--first off, these industries are extractive so they are not neutral ways of making money and second off, charity is not as good as tax...
I will change the way I donate based on what I’ve learned from this book. It is a thoughtful, rational approach to making charitable donations. It was eye-opening in many ways (things like percent of funds spent on the charitable activity itself is not a marker of effectiveness; how donors of small amounts are less likely to be repeat donors when they have evidence that shows a charity is effective; and how very small amounts of money can save many lives when donated to the right places). The di...
Hmmmm. This book was definitely not what I was expecting! The Most Good You Can Do: How Effective Altruism is Changing Ideas About Living Ethically by Peter Singer is a deeply philosophical book. Having never had philosophy in college, I was excited to read about the philosophical ideals around not just "doing good" but around being an effective altruist, or using reason and our resources to do the most good in the world that we can. Some different thoughts that I can take away from this book in...
I already donate my 10% with Giving What We Can but I still found the information in this book really compelling and a great way of explaining a lot of the more controversial effective altruism arguments. People don't have to agree with everything that Peter says, only with the idea that we should all be using our lives to make the world a better place, and doing that in the best way we can, using reason, not just the heart alone.Also- love the NZ Aussie segment at the end, really helpful for a
A quick read.The main gist: not all opportunities for charitable giving are created equal. We should be donating to the causes and organizations that do the most good. How does one evaluate "the most good?" Cost-Benefit Analysis, of course. For example, does it make more sense to spend $40,000 training a seeing-eye dog to help one blind person, or should we spend the money on operations that restore sight to the blind and cost $100-450 each? It's kind of a no-brainer, isn't it?The book begins by...
I picked this latest of Singer's books to read in my Ethics class for the utilitarianism requirement of the university's curriculum. The book has worked at generating interesting conversation among the students.Singer's stories of effective altruists and his concrete examples are interesting, some inspiring. The philosophical ideas come in reflection on real life issues. I have two criticisms (of the book). One, I'm not convinced by the structure. Some of the chapters seem misordered to me. Also...
Ah, Peter Singer. The ethic philosopher who's system is based purely on logic and reason. Emotion is usually the most important factor when it comes to ethics, but not for Singer and I think that's a good thing.This book is a nice quick read on effective altruism, which is basically: heavy suffering is bad, we can do something about it, therefore we should do something about it. In fact, we should do a a lot about it. But, in doing so, we should not be guided by personal opinion, we should striv...
This was a very positive and engaging read that made me consider how to do more in my life for the betterment of the world. This book's title (and message) is not entirely clear until you read it. The book is not about simply doing the most good that You-the-Reader can do, although I am sure it is a play on words, but is about "what" one chooses to do, as rated by effectiveness. Singer describes a group of people who have chosen to be called "effective altruists" and breaks this down: the defini...
It is certainly nice to read a book by a real philosopher that is written in a clear and totally comprehensible style, but that puts forth serious and thought-provoking ideas. I found that Singer regularly anticipated my objections to his arguments and shot them down one by one. If you want to do good, why wouldn't you want to do the most good possible, and therefore isn't it logical to earn the most money that you can while living modestly so that you can give it to people who are in the best p...
While in agreement with most of the ideas I did not fully enjoy this book.I had read "The life you can save" still by Peter Singer just months before and I find most of this book covers the same topics and does not evolve the position much. Even some examples are the same presented in "the life you can save" which I enjoyed a lot more.Even when the book goes into the philosophical points in favor of effective altruism, the same points look more convincing in the previous books, since there, Pete...
I was pretty convinced of this book even before I cracked it open, because I've had an interesting conversation with someone working in the Singapore chapter, and I personally, also feel that we can make better decisions when it comes to altruism and charity. Giving a couple dollars to fundraisers on the streets - young volunteers rattling tin cans with their cause printed on it for 4 hour shifts is a common sight in Singapore - seems like too little money for the amount of resources mobilized.
Wow this book made me think. My conclusion is that I'm a convert. Singer sets out in academic and accessible language the utilitarian arguments for "effective altruism". Convincing I so many ways and thought provoking in the same vein as his 'Justice' course. Incredibly useful for argumentation on rational arguments for altruism - as opposed to the traditional emotional views - this is well researched, clear, and concise. Referencing was very useful in following up on how a reader like me may pr...
I love reading Peter Singer’s books; he inspires me to be a better person.The Most Good You Can Do is about the concept of ‘effective altruism’; basically it’s about interrogating your own philanthropic choices to ascertain whether it’s money, time or other forms of altruism well spent.All of us are influenced to some extent by emotion when we give. There’s some rather dismaying research that shows that we are more likely to give to one child with a photo and a name than we are to photos of more...
The book in itself covers what it means to be an altruism in this day and age especially in the perspective of others that follow this practice. Initially my idea of "effective altruism" was fairly vague but Peter Singer addresses many things from common real world problems to everyday living. A lot of the points addressed in the book mostly revolving around money and how spend it were some fairly valid points, although I don't agree (or I wouldn't) do most of what people do to sacrifice to give...