Rationality Spring 2020, Tues & Thurs 1:30-2:45 Harvard University
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
Effective Altruism William Macaskill and Theron Pummer
1 Effective Altruism William MacAskill and Theron Pummer Climate change is on course to cause millions of deaths and cost the world economy trillions of dollars. Nearly a billion people live in extreme poverty, millions of them dying each year of easily preventable diseases. Just a small fraction of the thousands of nuclear weapons on hair‐trigger alert could easily bring about global catastrophe. New technologies like synthetic biology and artificial intelligence bring unprece dented risks. Meanwhile, year after year billions and billions of factory‐farmed ani mals live and die in misery. Given the number of severe problems facing the world today, and the resources required to solve them, we may feel at a loss as to where to even begin. The good news is that we can improve things with the right use of money, time, talent, and effort. These resources can bring about a great deal of improvement, or very little, depending on how they are allocated. The effective altruism movement consists of a growing global community of peo ple who use reason and evidence to assess how to do as much good as possible, and who take action on this basis. Launched in 2011, the movement now has thousands of members, as well as influence over billions of dollars. The movement has substan tially increased awareness of the fact that some altruistic activities are much more cost‐effective than others, in the sense that they do much more good than others per unit of resource expended. According to the nonprofit organization GiveWell, it costs around $3,500 to prevent someone from dying of malaria by distributing bed nets. -
EARTH MATTERS the Annual Bulletin of the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society • Vol 3, FALL 2017
EARTH MATTERS The annual bulletin of the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society • Vol 3, FALL 2017 PREDICTING CLIMATE CHANGE WITH HELP FROM EARTH’S OCEANS Environmental chemicals and children’s health: in utero and beyond Ancient sediments suggest a wetter future for Pacific islands Engaged scholars partner with community members to meet local needs The people and ecosystems of island nations like the Philippines are especially vulnerable to increasingly frequent and intense storms—both inevitabilities of a changing climate. Photo credit: kuroboshi LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR The repercussions of global change and how we respond to agree whether there is a moral imperative to save to it have become a domain of urgency. Why? The species or that national security depends on achieving greatest impacts of the human imprint on our planet are energy independence. Urgency, emergency and crisis – in arising from extremes – heat waves, droughts, floods, and cultural, political, and economic systems, as well as in the hurricanes. The natural sciences treat the attribution of patterns of climatic, ecological, and geological systems – extremes to human activities as ambiguous at best. But provide us with the opportunity for coexistence. in the public conversation, these events reveal patterns In 1992, Ulrich Beck wrote, “More urgently than ever, we of expectations regarding their scale and frequency; need ideas and theories that will allow us to conceive the expectations that are being violated with every new new which is rolling over us in a new way.” As scholars, disaster, bringing with it the direct experience of the we understand that it is necessary to integrate where trauma that may lie in the unimaginable future. -
Whether and Where to Give1 (Forthcoming in Philosophy and Public Affairs)
View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by St Andrews Research Repository 1 Whether and Where to Give1 (Forthcoming in Philosophy and Public Affairs) Theron Pummer University of St Andrews 1. The Ethics of Giving and Effective Altruism The ethics of giving has traditionally focused on whether, and how much, to give to charities helping people in extreme poverty.2 In more recent years, the discussion has increasingly focused on where to give, spurred by an appreciation of the substantial differences in cost- effectiveness between charities. According to a commonly cited example, $40,000 can be used either to help 1 blind person by training a seeing-eye dog in the United States or to help 2,000 blind people by providing surgeries reversing the effects of trachoma in Africa.3 Effective altruists recommend that we give large sums to charity, but by far their more central message is that we give effectively, i.e., to whatever charities would do the most good per dollar donated.4 In this paper, I’ll assume that it’s not wrong not to give bigger, but will explore to what extent it may well nonetheless be wrong not to give better. The main claim I’ll argue for here is that in many cases it would be wrong of you to give a sum of money to charities that do less good than others you could have given to instead, even if 1 I am extremely grateful to Derek Parfit, Roger Crisp, Jeff McMahan, and Peter Singer for extremely helpful feedback and encouragement. -
By William Macaskill
Published on June 20, 2016 Brother, can you spare an RCT? ‘Doing Good Better’ by William MacAskill By Terence Wood If you’ve ever thought carefully about international development you will be tormented by shoulds. Should the Australian government really give aid rather Link: https://devpolicy.org/brother-can-spare-util-good-better-william-macaskill-20160620/ Page 1 of 5 Date downloaded: September 30, 2021 Published on June 20, 2016 than focus on domestic poverty? Should I donate more money personally? And if so, what sort of NGO should I give to? The good news is that William MacAskill is here to help. MacAskill is an associate professor in philosophy at the University of Oxford, and in Doing Good Better he wants to teach you to be an Effective Altruist. Effective Altruism is an attempt to take a form ofconsequentialism (a philosophical viewpoint in which an action is deemed right or wrong on the basis of its consequences) and plant it squarely amidst the decisions of our daily lives. MacAskill’s target audience isn’t limited to people involved in international development, but almost everything he says is relevant. Effective Altruists contend we should devote as much time and as many resources as we reasonably can to help those in greater need. They also want us to avoid actions that cause, or will cause, suffering. Taken together, this means promoting vegetarianism, (probably) taking action on climate change, and–of most interest to readers of this blog–giving a lot of aid. That’s the altruism. As for effectiveness, MacAskill argues that when we give we need to focus on addressing the most acute needs, while carefully choosing what works best. -
PROCEEDINGS of the WORKSHOP on TRADE and CONSERVATION of PANGOLINS NATIVE to SOUTH and SOUTHEAST ASIA 30 June – 2 July 2008, Singapore Zoo Edited by S
PROCEEDINGS OF THE WORKSHOP ON TRADE AND CONSERVATION OF PANGOLINS NATIVE TO SOUTH AND SOUTHEAST ASIA 30 June – 2 July 2008, Singapore Zoo Edited by S. Pantel and S.Y. Chin Wildlife Reserves Singapore Group PROCEEDINGS OF THE WORKSHOP ON TRADE AND CONSERVATION OF PANGOLINS NATIVE TO SOUTH AND SOUTHEAST ASIA 30 JUNE –2JULY 2008, SINGAPORE ZOO EDITED BY S. PANTEL AND S. Y. CHIN 1 Published by TRAFFIC Southeast Asia, Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia © 2009 TRAFFIC Southeast Asia All rights reserved. All material appearing in these proceedings is copyrighted and may be reproduced with permission. Any reproduction, in full or in part, of this publication must credit TRAFFIC Southeast Asia as the copyright owner. The views of the authors expressed in these proceedings do not necessarily reflect those of the TRAFFIC Network, WWF or IUCN. The designations of geographical entities in this publication, and the presentation of the material, do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of TRAFFIC or its supporting organizations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, or area, or its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The TRAFFIC symbol copyright and Registered Trademark ownership is held by WWF. TRAFFIC is a joint programme of WWF and IUCN. Layout by Sandrine Pantel, TRAFFIC Southeast Asia Suggested citation: Sandrine Pantel and Chin Sing Yun (ed.). 2009. Proceedings of the Workshop on Trade and Conservation of Pangolins Native to South and Southeast Asia, 30 June-2 July -
Against 'Effective Altruism'
Against ‘Effective Altruism’ Alice Crary Effective Altruism (EA) is a programme for rationalising for the most part adopt the attitude that they have no charitable giving, positioning individuals to do the ‘most serious critics and that sceptics ought to be content with good’ per expenditure of money or time. It was first for- their ongoing attempts to fine-tune their practice. mulated – by two Oxford philosophers just over a decade It is a posture belied by the existence of formidable ago–as an application of the moral theory consequential- critical resources both inside and outside the philosoph- ism, and from the outset one of its distinctions within ical tradition in which EA originates. In light of the undis- the philanthropic world was expansion of the class of puted impact of EA, and its success in attracting idealistic charity-recipients to include non-human animals. EA young people, it is important to forcefully make the case has been the target of a fair bit of grumbling, and even that it owes its success primarily not to the – question- some mockery, from activists and critics on the left, who able – value of its moral theory but to its compatibility associate consequentialism with depoliticising tenden- with political and economic institutions responsible for cies of welfarism. But EA has mostly gotten a pass, with some of the very harms it addresses. The sincere ded- many detractors concluding that, however misguided, its ication of many individual adherents notwithstanding, efforts to get bankers, tech entrepreneurs and the like to reflection on EA reveals a straightforward example of give away their money cost-effectively does no serious moral corruption. -
Metcalf Institute for Marine & Environmental Reporting
Metcalf Metcalf Institute for Marine & Environmental Reporting ANNUAL REPORT 2019 ANNUAL REPORT 2019 / i Staff Sunshine Menezes, Ph.D., Executive Director Katharine McDuffie, Program Director Karen Southern, Communications Director Margaret Hayden, Research Assistant Lisa Philo, Research Assistant Student Employees Program and Interns Volunteers Jacob Arena Rebecca Ballard Katherine Canfield Cagney Croomer Jordanne Feldman Kristen DeMoranville Sean Grandy Joseph Fridman Asta Habtemichael Hannah Knighton Christina Hoenow Beatrice McConville Nyla Husain Valerie Puleo Colin Jones Elaine Shen Zak Kerrigan Melva Treviño-Peña Elise Mason Nadia Moss Andy Mui Gabriella Placido Julia Rei Aaron Schneidereit Victoria Treadaway Cassandra Servis Sarah Vican Benjamin Woods Metcalf Institute is an internationally recognized science communication program that trains researchers, journalists and science communi- cators in non-profit, government, academic, and private sectors through a wide range of activities that have benefitted nearly 2,500 participants and tens of millions of news consumers. The Institute was established with a modest endowment at the URI Foundation in 1997 and named in honor of Michael P. Metcalf, the late publisher of The Providence Journal, who was known for his integrity, vision, and high standards for journalism. Additional funding was provided by the Telaka Foundation in 1998. Metcalf Institute envisions broad and inclusive public engagement in environmental challenges, solutions, and science through effective commu- nication by news media, science communicators, and researchers. METCALF INSTITUTE PHOTOS: GRETCHEN ERTL UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED DEAR FRIENDS, Accurate, reliable information about science is essential for making informed decisions. On the eve of the 2020 U.S. elections, we at Metcalf Institute feel a renewed sense of urgency in our mission to engage diverse audiences in informed conversations about science and the environment. -
Boston Tech Hub Faculty Working Group Annual Report: 2018-2019
BOSTON TECH HUB FACULTY WORKING GROUP Annual Report 2018–2019 Technology and Public Purpose Project Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs Harvard Kennedy School 79 JFK Street Cambridge, MA 02138 www.belfercenter.org/TAPP Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences 29 Oxford St., Cambridge, MA 02138 www.seas.harvard.edu Statements and views expressed in this report are solely those of the authors and do not imply endorsement by Harvard University, Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard Paulson School, or the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. Design and Layout by Andrew Facini Copyright 2019, President and Fellows of Harvard College Printed in the United States of America BOSTON TECH HUB FACULTY WORKING GROUP Annual Report 2018–2019 Contents Foreword ...............................................................................................................1 FWG Members and Guests 2018–2019 .........................................................3 Introduction ..........................................................................................................9 Summary ............................................................................................................ 10 FWG Session Briefs: Fall 2018 ....................................................................... 17 FWG Session Briefs: Spring 2019 ................................................................. 35 FWG participants explore private sector investment in emerging technologies and the impact investing -
194 William Macaskill. Doing Good Better: How Effective Altruism Can Help You Help Others, Do Work That Matters, and Make Smarte
Philosophy in Review XXXIX (November 2019), no. 4 William MacAskill. Doing Good Better: How Effective Altruism Can Help You Help Others, Do Work that Matters, and Make Smarter Choices About Giving Back. Avery 2016. 272 pp. $17.00 USD (Paperback ISBN 9781592409662). Will MacAskill’s Doing Good Better provides an introduction to the Effective Altruism movement, and, in the process, it makes a strong case for its importance. The book is aimed at a general audience. It is fairly short and written for the most part in a light, conversational tone. Doing Good Better’s only real rival as a treatment of Effective Altruism is Peter Singer’s The Most Good You Can Do, though MacAskill’s and Singer’s books are better seen as companion pieces than rivals. Like The Most Good You Can Do, Doing Good Better offers the reader much of philosophical interest, and it delivers novel perspectives and even some counterintuitive but well-reasoned conclusions that will likely provoke both critics and defenders of Effective Altruism for some time to come. Before diving into Doing Good Better we want to take a moment to characterize Effective Altruism. Crudely put, Effective Altruists are committed to three claims. First, they maintain that we have strong reason to help others. Second, they claim that these reasons are impartial in nature. And, third, they hold that we are required to act on these reasons in the most effective manner possible. Hence, according to Effective Altruists, those of us who are fortunate enough to have the leisure to write (or read) scholarly book reviews (1) should help those who are most in need, (2) should do so even if we lack any personal connection to them, and (3) should do so as efficiently as we can. -
Why Maximize Expected Choice-Worthiness?1 WILLIAM MACASKILL and TOBY ORD University of Oxford
NOUSˆ 00:00 (2018) 1–27 doi: 10.1111/nous.12264 Why Maximize Expected Choice-Worthiness?1 WILLIAM MACASKILL AND TOBY ORD University of Oxford This paper argues in favor of a particular account of decision-making under nor- mative uncertainty: that, when it is possible to do so, one should maximize expected choice-worthiness. Though this position has been often suggested in the literature and is often taken to be the ‘default’ view, it has so far received little in the way of positive argument in its favor. After dealing with some preliminaries and giving the basic motivation for taking normative uncertainty into account in our decision- making, we consider and provide new arguments against two rival accounts that have been offered—the accounts that we call ‘My Favorite Theory’ and ‘My Fa- vorite Option’. We then give a novel argument for comparativism—the view that, under normative uncertainty, one should take into account both probabilities of different theories and magnitudes of choice-worthiness. Finally, we further argue in favor of maximizing expected choice-worthiness and consider and respond to five objections. Introduction Normative uncertainty is a fact of life. Suppose that Michael has £20 to spend. With that money, he could eat out at a nice restaurant. Alternatively, he could eat at home and pay for four long-lasting insecticide-treated bed nets that would protect eight children against malaria. Let’s suppose that Michael knows all the morally relevant empirical facts about what that £20 could do. Even so, it might be that he still doesn’t know whether he’s obligated to donate that money or whether it’s permissible for him to pay for the meal out, because he just doesn’t know how strong his moral obligations to distant strangers are. -
The Definition of Effective Altruism
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 19/08/19, SPi 1 The Definition of Effective Altruism William MacAskill There are many problems in the world today. Over 750 million people live on less than $1.90 per day (at purchasing power parity).1 Around 6 million children die each year of easily preventable causes such as malaria, diarrhea, or pneumonia.2 Climate change is set to wreak environmental havoc and cost the economy tril- lions of dollars.3 A third of women worldwide have suffered from sexual or other physical violence in their lives.4 More than 3,000 nuclear warheads are in high-alert ready-to-launch status around the globe.5 Bacteria are becoming antibiotic- resistant.6 Partisanship is increasing, and democracy may be in decline.7 Given that the world has so many problems, and that these problems are so severe, surely we have a responsibility to do something about them. But what? There are countless problems that we could be addressing, and many different ways of addressing each of those problems. Moreover, our resources are scarce, so as individuals and even as a globe we can’t solve all these problems at once. So we must make decisions about how to allocate the resources we have. But on what basis should we make such decisions? The effective altruism movement has pioneered one approach. Those in this movement try to figure out, of all the different uses of our resources, which uses will do the most good, impartially considered. This movement is gathering con- siderable steam. There are now thousands of people around the world who have chosen -
Revamping Federal Climate Science Recommendations for the Next President of the United States
GETTY SHIPING IMAGES/LIU Revamping Federal Climate Science Recommendations for the Next President of the United States By John Podesta, Bidisha Bhattacharyya, and Bianca Majumder December 2020 WWW.AMERICANPROGRESS.ORG Contents 1 Introduction and Summary 4 Recommendations to restore scientific integrity across the government 9 Recommendations for rebuilding the federal climate science workforce 13 Recommendations to coordinate climate science in the White House and across the federal government 19 Recommendations to define interagency climate science research and data priorities 31 Recommendations for prioritizing adaptation and resilience 34 Recommendations to promote international coordination on climate science 40 Conclusion 41 About the authors 41 Acknowledgments 44 Appendix: References and further reading 46 Endnotes Introduction and summary The United States has been the global leader in climate science for decades. Unfortunately, progress has slowed—and in some cases, even moved backward— over the past four years, with the Trump administration dismantling core elements of the federal climate science apparatus. As the country and the planet head toward an increasingly unstable climate, the U.S. government needs to get back to the business of being the preeminent source of trusted applied science that supports climate change mitigation and adaptation decision-making of governments and civilian stakeholders. The science is clear: To avoid the worst impacts of climate change, the United States and the world must take aggressive action to decarbonize all sectors of the global economy, protect the Earth’s natural systems, and limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels. This means achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions globally by no later than 2050 and ensuring an equitable and just transition to a clean energy economy.