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92 reviews for:
The Most Good You Can Do: How Effective Altruism Is Changing Ideas About Living Ethically
Peter Singer
3.69 AVERAGE
92 reviews for:
The Most Good You Can Do: How Effective Altruism Is Changing Ideas About Living Ethically
Peter Singer
3.69 AVERAGE
I literally bought this book solely because I saw it on an episode of "The Good Place" and I thought it was amazing in that context haha. I had zero idea of what it was even about, but with a lot of neg in my life at the moment, I wanted to read something positive and uplifting, so I figured it would be a good time to bring this out.
For some reason, I was NOT expecting this to be a philosophy book. I don't know what else I thought it would be, but since I studied philosophy in college, I was excited for the challenge. At first, I vibed with the book quite a bit and found myself going through it pretty quickly. Its laid out in a really accessible way and organized well to get through a lot of information.
By the last few chapters, I ended up skipping ahead, and almost didn't finish the book at all. A lot of the examples repeat and at some point, everything kind of started to jumble up for me. Probably for someone who is ACTUALLY interested in effective altruism, this might be a good examination, but for someone who just bought the book on a whim, it gets pretty boring.
I did really connect with the chapters on animal suffering and climate change, but that's only two sections of a pretty involved look at a philosophy I don't subscribe to or desire to know anything about really. I wouldn't recommend this for just anybody, nor would I really recommend buying a book just because you saw it on a TV show and thought it looked cool. Ha!
I do kind of want to read more philosophy now tho...
For some reason, I was NOT expecting this to be a philosophy book. I don't know what else I thought it would be, but since I studied philosophy in college, I was excited for the challenge. At first, I vibed with the book quite a bit and found myself going through it pretty quickly. Its laid out in a really accessible way and organized well to get through a lot of information.
By the last few chapters, I ended up skipping ahead, and almost didn't finish the book at all. A lot of the examples repeat and at some point, everything kind of started to jumble up for me. Probably for someone who is ACTUALLY interested in effective altruism, this might be a good examination, but for someone who just bought the book on a whim, it gets pretty boring.
I did really connect with the chapters on animal suffering and climate change, but that's only two sections of a pretty involved look at a philosophy I don't subscribe to or desire to know anything about really. I wouldn't recommend this for just anybody, nor would I really recommend buying a book just because you saw it on a TV show and thought it looked cool. Ha!
I do kind of want to read more philosophy now tho...
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 dwells on how best a life can be led in the service of other sentient beings, the beings here encompassing both human as well as non-human life. Singer takes great pains to enunciate the fact that effective altruism goes way beyond the customary donation to a random charitable organization that espouses the furtherance of a genuine cause. An effective altruist is one who reasons in favour of the maximum good being done to most persons who are in need of such generosity as opposed to enriching the physical and spiritual prospects of just one individual who is also equally in need of such magnanimity.
But the moral compass which Singer deems a pre requisite for being an effective altruist is not something that people would view as not just being controversial but also as something that is enveloped in a cloak of serious subjectivity. For eg. Is spending $10,000 on an initiative to eradicate the ill effects of malaria in a poor and developing nation a more worthy and noble cause than donating the same amount to Make a Wish Foundation to enable the Foundation to fulfill a wish of a 10 year old afflicted with leukemia? Or is the act of voluntarily donating a kidney much more weightier in substance than making an annual donation to an organisation that has as its motive reducing the prevalence of starvation across a particular Geography? The book also cites a plethora of examples of 'effective altruists' who have taken a pledge to donate a significant and substantial portion of their income/earnings (some as high as 80%) to altruistic purposes and choosing to lead an austere life. To be scathingly honest some of the illustrations read more like a spurring propaganda for evangelism rather than an exhortation to make lives more meaningful. Bombarding a potential donor with a barrage of examples where people have sacrificed a life of luxury to live in piety, with a view to attracting a material contribution, might in fact have an exactly opposite and counter intuitive effect. The potential donor might be put off with what she thinks to be an extremely exacting challenge which is totally disproportionate to the objective proposed to be achieved.
The book also contains the usual Singer offerings of Animal Welfare and charities devoting their time effort and energy towards the prevention of cruelty to animals. Singer also provides details about organisations such as Give Well which evaluate the work and worth of charities with a view to assisting aspiring donors in making a prudent and wise choice as to the charities to which they can donate their resources.
To conclude, "The Most Good You can Do" is a lukewarm mish mash that leaves one wondering whether the book is a clarion call for evangelical activism or a plenitude of genuinely noble motives for making the world a better place to live.
Himself, one of the founding fathers of this moralistic concept, Singer dwells on how best a life can be led in the service of other sentient beings, the beings here encompassing both human as well as non-human life. Singer takes great pains to enunciate the fact that effective altruism goes way beyond the customary donation to a random charitable organization that espouses the furtherance of a genuine cause. An effective altruist is one who reasons in favour of the maximum good being done to most persons who are in need of such generosity as opposed to enriching the physical and spiritual prospects of just one individual who is also equally in need of such magnanimity.
But the moral compass which Singer deems a pre requisite for being an effective altruist is not something that people would view as not just being controversial but also as something that is enveloped in a cloak of serious subjectivity. For eg. Is spending $10,000 on an initiative to eradicate the ill effects of malaria in a poor and developing nation a more worthy and noble cause than donating the same amount to Make a Wish Foundation to enable the Foundation to fulfill a wish of a 10 year old afflicted with leukemia? Or is the act of voluntarily donating a kidney much more weightier in substance than making an annual donation to an organisation that has as its motive reducing the prevalence of starvation across a particular Geography? The book also cites a plethora of examples of 'effective altruists' who have taken a pledge to donate a significant and substantial portion of their income/earnings (some as high as 80%) to altruistic purposes and choosing to lead an austere life. To be scathingly honest some of the illustrations read more like a spurring propaganda for evangelism rather than an exhortation to make lives more meaningful. Bombarding a potential donor with a barrage of examples where people have sacrificed a life of luxury to live in piety, with a view to attracting a material contribution, might in fact have an exactly opposite and counter intuitive effect. The potential donor might be put off with what she thinks to be an extremely exacting challenge which is totally disproportionate to the objective proposed to be achieved.
The book also contains the usual Singer offerings of Animal Welfare and charities devoting their time effort and energy towards the prevention of cruelty to animals. Singer also provides details about organisations such as Give Well which evaluate the work and worth of charities with a view to assisting aspiring donors in making a prudent and wise choice as to the charities to which they can donate their resources.
To conclude, "The Most Good You can Do" is a lukewarm mish mash that leaves one wondering whether the book is a clarion call for evangelical activism or a plenitude of genuinely noble motives for making the world a better place to live.
This book may ruin your life in the best possible way. Be warned! I recommend Singer's 'The Life You Can Save' over this, in saying that, this is a great place to start for Effective Altruism.
So good!! People are too complacent and definitely don't think about themselves in the context of planet/people/animals. We can all have an impact so let's try!!! Don't know how much I agree about working in jobs like investment banking because these companies usually have some negative effects which maybe not outweigh you donating but still great way to think about consumption and how we live
I found this book extremely compelling. It promotes effective altruism; basically, the idea that you need to think critically about your charitable donations because “some charities do hundreds, even thousands, of times more good per dollar than others”. Charities are largely appealing to emotion and not reason. If we were to reason a little bit more, we would see that saving lives or lifting people out of extreme poverty with our donor dollars is the “most good you can do”. Peter Singer really made me think!
I could not put this book down! It gives a really great perspective on different philosophies/ethical frameworks for charity work. I found the concept of effective altruism super interesting and while I think the author and examples can be a bit extreme, I actually really enjoyed seeing charity from such a statistics-based perspective. It definitely made me think a lot about my own positions on charity work and how much I value effectiveness. I think overall it made me hyper aware of my personal weighing mechanisms when it comes to deciding where and how to be altruistic, while also raising the question of what role I want those weighing mechanisms to play in my professional life. I wish Singer had spent more time on the environment, just because that is an issue I care a lot about, but I am glad he spent so much time focusing on animal rights, something I rarely put any thought into. The first 3/4 of the book I thought were a lot stronger than the last part, when it drops away from the more narrative style and into more strict impact analysis, but overall still really enjoyable.
even though he's someone coining the term 'effective altruism' and that gives singer the right to define it as he wishes, i find qualms with the definition. i'm a huge fan of peter singer and 'the life you can save' resonated strongly with me (i even took the pledge!)
that said, i find he continues to narrow definitions that may exclude people from striving towards particular definitions or even dissuades them from joining his ways of thinking. i mean, who wouldn't want to be an effective altruist when it comes down to it? but then you dive in and see that you must value animal rights equally with human rights (not a ridiculous supposition, but certainly exclusionary) and then that there's no room for values-driven giving. when you think about personal financial investing, the approach is that of a portfolio, which is how our household considers philanthropic giving. most of our money goes to eradicating global poverty and we save 20% or so for giving to charities that support our values. does this mean my altruism is not effective? this doesn't upset me from a personal perspective, but since i assume that peter singer is trying to get more people on board to consider effective altruism, i feel that his standards are impossibly high at persuading others to become effective altruists in his sense of the word.
regarding the book itself, i've been lucky enough to see him speak within the last couple of years and it closely follows his recent lectures. as a result, i found myself skimming some sections of the book towards the end, since i was familiar with the stories already. if you want to pick up a book that helps you think more broadly about your giving, i'd put this one down and grab 'the life you can save' instead.
that said, i find he continues to narrow definitions that may exclude people from striving towards particular definitions or even dissuades them from joining his ways of thinking. i mean, who wouldn't want to be an effective altruist when it comes down to it? but then you dive in and see that you must value animal rights equally with human rights (not a ridiculous supposition, but certainly exclusionary) and then that there's no room for values-driven giving. when you think about personal financial investing, the approach is that of a portfolio, which is how our household considers philanthropic giving. most of our money goes to eradicating global poverty and we save 20% or so for giving to charities that support our values. does this mean my altruism is not effective? this doesn't upset me from a personal perspective, but since i assume that peter singer is trying to get more people on board to consider effective altruism, i feel that his standards are impossibly high at persuading others to become effective altruists in his sense of the word.
regarding the book itself, i've been lucky enough to see him speak within the last couple of years and it closely follows his recent lectures. as a result, i found myself skimming some sections of the book towards the end, since i was familiar with the stories already. if you want to pick up a book that helps you think more broadly about your giving, i'd put this one down and grab 'the life you can save' instead.
hopeful
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
I think I thought this book would be more helpful than it was. I did gain a deeper insight of effective altruism though and it certainly challenged me with where I use my money.
I haven't heard about Peter Singer until a little more than a year ago, when I turned vegan. This is not something I am proud of, but I am glad I didn't stop to "animal liberation" as I would not have read this book.
I think I have spoken about The Most Good You Can Do to almost all my friends. It is incredibly inspiring and make you really think about what you do and why you do what you do.
Since a child, I have grown up doing a lot of volunteering, often not even wondering why I was doing some activity instead of another. Even though this book is not about volunteering, it made me consider it and charity in general under another point of view. In a world where often things are good or bad, black or white, Peter Singer gives you the tools to detect the grays.
I wish one day I will be able to change my lifestyle so much so, to be able to be part of the efficient altruists who are described in the book. For now, only knowing these sort of people exists, make me want to do a little more, and this is something you don't gain often from a reading.
I think I have spoken about The Most Good You Can Do to almost all my friends. It is incredibly inspiring and make you really think about what you do and why you do what you do.
Since a child, I have grown up doing a lot of volunteering, often not even wondering why I was doing some activity instead of another. Even though this book is not about volunteering, it made me consider it and charity in general under another point of view. In a world where often things are good or bad, black or white, Peter Singer gives you the tools to detect the grays.
I wish one day I will be able to change my lifestyle so much so, to be able to be part of the efficient altruists who are described in the book. For now, only knowing these sort of people exists, make me want to do a little more, and this is something you don't gain often from a reading.