Effective Altruism: How Can We Best Help Others?

by Magnus Vinding

This book is part introduction to, part reflective examination of, the idea and ideal of effective altruism. Its aim is to examine the core question of effective altruism: How can we best help others? This question in turn forces us to contemplate what helping others ultimately entails. Here the book argues that the greatest help we can provide is to reduce extreme suffering for all sentient beings, and then goes on to provide some suggestions for how this might best be done.

"Magnus Vinding's inquiring mind leaves few stones unturned as he explores key issues and ideas related to ethics. What starts off as a good overview of effective altruism and the concepts needed to apply it better, progresses into a deeper exploration of the basis for the underlying values and the extraordinary importance of prioritising the prevention of intense suffering of all sentient beings. A must-read for any current or aspiring effective altruist, and for social activists in general."
Jonathan Leighton, founder of the Organisation for the Prevention of Intense Suffering, author of The Battle for Compassion: Ethics in an Apathetic Universe

"This book provides an accessible introduction to important ideas that anyone interested in changing the world for the better should seriously consider. It explains some crucial issues often overlooked in the effective altruist literature, and examines others from a fresh perspective. It does a great job of rethinking several common assumptions, and points at biases that can make it hard to think clearly about which causes might be most worth pursuing. It can thus be a very useful tool for those who want to make a big difference."
Oscar Horta, professor of moral philosophy at University of Santiago de Compostela, co-founder of Animal Ethics, author of Making a Stand for Animals

"Brilliant. A clear, fair-minded and authoritative survey of Effective Altruism. Magnus Vinding makes a powerful case for suffering-focused ethics. How can each of us act most effectively to help all sentient beings? Highly recommended."
David Pearce, author of The Hedonistic Imperative and Can Biotechnology Abolish Suffering?

"Magnus Vinding's new book is a compelling and accessible guide to the rationale of Effective Altruism. It empowers readers to comprehend the unique opportunity we have to effectively help others with our limited resources. The author encourages us to expand our moral circle to include all present and future non-human sentient beings in our altruistic endeavors. The final chapters also provide a very helpful introduction to 's-risks' and suffering-focused ethics to those less familiar with these subjects."
Lara André, University of Exeter

"A great book that deals with the most important subject of all: preventing suffering. Very well-written, clear and profound."
Manu Herrán, research associate at the Organisation for the Prevention of Intense Suffering, author of Arena Sensible

"There has never been a better moment in time to jump into the Effective Altruism movement or deepen your involvement. And in this journey, Vinding's book will be of invaluable aid. It is a gold mine of insights and provocative ideas for aspiring and seasoned Effective Altruists alike. I've been involved in Effective Altruism for years, but Vinding's book taught me a ton and challenged my assumptions. This book will help you be, in Vinding's words, the light that brightens the darkness of the world. Good luck!"
Ben Davidow, author of Uncaged: Top Activists Share Their Wisdom on Effective Farm Animal Advocacy

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction

100 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 6, 2018

About the author

Magnus Vinding is the author of Speciesism: Why It Is Wrong and the Implications of Rejecting It (2015), Reflections on Intelligence (2016), You Are Them (2017), Effective Altruism: How Can We Best Help Others? (2018), Suffering-Focused Ethics: Defense and Implications (2020), Reasoned Politics (2022), Essays on Suffering-Focused Ethics (2022), and Essays on UFOs and Related Conjectures (2024).

His next book will be Compassionate Purpose: Personal Inspiration for a Better World.

Reviews

[Magnus Vinding]

The book can be downloaded for free here:
https://centerforreducingsuffering.or...
https://www.amazon.com/Effective-Altr...
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...

[Sille · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book really opened my eyes and has inspired me to make quite a few changes in my life, among other things, I dropped out of the BA-programme I was doing, and have begun taking another bachelor’s degree in a field where I think I can do a lot more good. The book touches upon many subjects and philosophical considerations which seem worth reflecting upon.

[Simon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book for reflections on suffering-focused ethics. Recommended reading for people who are interested in how they personnally can help to reduce more suffering and how one could use his/her time and financial resources as efficiently as possible while living a happy and fulfilling life. Seriously one of the best books I've read so far!

[Teo · Rating 5 out of 5]

2019.02.17–2019.02.18,
2021.02.14–2021.02.14

Contents

Vinding M (2018) (03:26) Effective Altruism - How Can We Best Help Others?

Preface

Introduction: What Is Effective Altruism?
• Singer’s Shallow Pond
• A Brief Note on Ethics

01. The Core Virtues of Effective Altruism
• It Is an Open Question
• Impartiality
• Dedication to Reason
• Being Aware of Biases
• Confirmation Bias
• Overconfidence Bias
• Wishful Thinking
• Groupthink
• Scope Neglect
• Speciesist Bias
• Expected Value Thinking

02. Monetary Donation
• Human Poverty
• Meta Charity
• Helping Non-Human Individuals
• Effective Altruism Research

03. Career Choice
• Earning to Give

04. The Long-Term Future
• Future Egalitarianism
• Impacting the Long-Term Future: Direct or Indirect Action?
• The Future of Artificial Intelligence

05. The Cruciality of Clarity About Values
• Helping Others: “What” and “How”
• Inescapable Unclarity
• Clarifying the “What”
• Specifying the Nature of the (Under)Specified “What”

06. Suffering-Focused Ethics
• The Asymmetries
• Tranquilism: Happiness as the Absence of Suffering
• Creating Happiness at the Cost of Suffering Is Wrong
• Two Objections

07. The Principle of Sympathy for Intense Suffering
• The Horrendous Support for SIS
• Objections to SIS
• Bias Alert: We Prefer to Not Think About Extreme Suffering

08. Anti-Speciesism
• The Indefensibility of Our Prevailing View
• The Implications of Rejecting Speciesism
• Wild Animal Suffering
• Bias Alert: We Should Expect to Be Extremely Biased

09. Future Directions
• Avoid Trying to Destroy the World
• Promoting Deeper Concern for Suffering
• Minimizing S-Risks
• Expanding Our Moral Circle
• Researching and Reflecting on the Question

10. A Good Life: The Precondition for Effective Altruism
• How Can We Best Help Ourselves?

Acknowledgments
Bibliography

[Alex Fries · Rating 5 out of 5]

Accessible introduction to the field of effective altruism and the still-to-be debated questions underlying this movement. I greatly appreciated the references and additional resources relating to the core theme as well as the very comprehensible writing style. One point that may have lacked addressing was the real-life psychological implications (of an individual or a society) that successfully managed to erase suffering, as well as a more in-depth discussion of what suffering actually is and whether it could also have advantages (i.e. is there good after there is no bad any more?).

[Daniel Hageman · Rating 5 out of 5]

An unexpected interesting and challenging summary of Effective Altruism. I remain hesitant regarding some of the arguments against classical utilitarianism, and specifically for a more negative utilitarianism (though I think in practice, the idea probably does make a lot more sense), but all in all this is a great, succinct book to explain the movement to someone new, or to prod the intellectual gears of already active constituents.

[Evan · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's okay, but if you're after an introduction to Effective Altruism as a movement I think Will MacAskill and Peter Singer's books on the subject are better.

[Joanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the thought experiments in this book. It really helps you step back from the typical human biases we all take for granted (e.g. there are many noted by the author, but the main focus is on our "neglectedness" of other species and long-term outcomes).

There are also some practical guidelines for choosing charities that "practice" effective altruism.

However the meat of the book is the author's opinion on the principle of Sympathy for Intense Suffering, or SIS for short, "which roughly holds that we should prioritize the interests of those who are, or will be, in a state of extreme suffering". It's an interesting perspective that I think I can personally resonate with, especially the idea around asymmetry between happiness and suffering - the urgency to alleviate suffering typically has an order of magnitude more importance than our desire to increase happiness. Vinding's rebuttal against the romanticization of human happiness sometimes felt a bit handwavy but I appreciate that he at least attempts to contextualize his"hard" philosophical views.