Sublime

First, believing in the overriding importance of sustained economic growth is more than philosophically tenable. Indeed, it may be philosophically imperative. We should pursue large rather than small benefits, and we should have a deep concern for the more distant future rather than discounting it exponentially. Our working standard for evaluating

The philosopher Erik Wielenberg argues for this, what he calls “non-natural non-theistic moral realism.”

At any rate, the people sitting around Sam’s living room and talking about where Sam’s money was being spent weren’t talking about buying bed nets for children in Africa, to prevent malaria. They were looking for clever ways to reduce existential risk. The sums they were able to give away were about to increase dramatically—or so they all imagined.

TF: Will introduced me to GiveWell.org, a site that conducts in-depth research to determine how much nonprofits and foundations actually accomplish (in terms of lives saved, lives improved, etc.) per dollar spent.

Robert Goodin wrote a whole treatise on this topic, On Settling,

“What’s working and how can we do more of it?”

ethical check based on two factors: what behavior we are changing and how we are changing behavior.

philosophy