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Leif Wenar | |
|---|---|
| Academic background | |
| Education | Harvard University (PhD), Stanford University (AB) |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Philosopher |
| Institutions | Stanford University |
| Main interests | Ethics |
Leif Wenar is an American Philosopher and Olive H. Palmer Professor in Humanities at Stanford University. He is known for his work on political science. [1] In March 2024,he wrote an article for Wired magazine critiquing the effective altruism movement called "The Deaths of Effective Altruism." [2]
Altruism is the principle and practice of concern for the well-being and/or happiness of other humans or animals above oneself. While objects of altruistic concern vary,it is an important moral value in many cultures and religions. It may be considered a synonym of selflessness,the opposite of selfishness.
Applied ethics is the practical aspect of moral considerations. It is ethics with respect to real-world actions and their moral considerations in private and public life,the professions,health,technology,law,and leadership. For example,bioethics is concerned with identifying the best approach to moral issues in the life sciences,such as euthanasia,the allocation of scarce health resources,or the use of human embryos in research. Environmental ethics is concerned with ecological issues such as the responsibility of government and corporations to clean up pollution. Business ethics includes the duties of whistleblowers to the public and to their employers.
In ethical philosophy,ethical egoism is the normative position that moral agents ought to act in their own self-interest. It differs from psychological egoism,which claims that people can only act in their self-interest. Ethical egoism also differs from rational egoism,which holds that it is rational to act in one's self-interest. Ethical egoism holds,therefore,that actions whose consequences will benefit the doer are ethical.
Ethics or moral philosophy is the philosophical study of moral phenomena. It investigates normative questions about what people ought to do or which behavior is morally right. It is usually divided into three major fields:normative ethics,applied ethics,and metaethics.
Egoism is a philosophy concerned with the role of the self,or ego,as the motivation and goal of one's own action. Different theories of egoism encompass a range of disparate ideas and can generally be categorized into descriptive or normative forms. That is,they may be interested in either describing that people do act in self-interest or prescribing that they should. Other definitions of egoism may instead emphasise action according to one's will rather than one's self-interest,and furthermore posit that this is a truer sense of egoism.
Rights are legal,social,or ethical principles of freedom or entitlement;that is,rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal system,social convention,or ethical theory. Rights are of essential importance in such disciplines as law and ethics,especially theories of justice and deontology.
John Bordley Rawls was an American moral,legal and political philosopher in the modern liberal tradition. Rawls has been described as one of the most influential political philosophers of the 20th century.
"Justice as Fairness:Political not Metaphysical" is an essay by John Rawls,published in 1985. In it he describes his conception of justice. It comprises two main principles of liberty and equality;the second is subdivided into fair equality of opportunity and the difference principle.
Rational egoism is the principle that an action is rational if and only if it maximizes one's self-interest. As such,it is considered a normative form of egoism,though historically has been associated with both positive and normative forms. In its strong form,rational egoism holds that to not pursue one's own interest is unequivocally irrational. Its weaker form,however,holds that while it is rational to pursue self-interest,failing to pursue self-interest is not always irrational.
In ethical philosophy,altruism is an ethical doctrine that holds that the moral value of an individual's actions depends solely on the impact of those actions on other individuals,regardless of the consequences for the actor. James Fieser states the altruist dictum as:
"An action is morally right if the consequences of that action are more favorable than unfavorable to everyone except the agent."
GiveWell is an American non-profit charity assessment and effective altruism-focused organization. GiveWell focuses primarily on the cost-effectiveness of the organizations that it evaluates,rather than traditional metrics such as the percentage of the organization's budget that is spent on overhead.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and introduction to rights:
Toby David Godfrey Ord is an Australian philosopher. In 2009 he founded Giving What We Can,an international society whose members pledge to donate at least 10% of their income to effective charities,and is a key figure in the effective altruism movement,which promotes using reason and evidence to help the lives of others as much as possible.
Alice Crary is an American philosopher who currently holds the positions of University Distinguished Professor at the Graduate Faculty,The New School for Social Research in New York City and Visiting Fellow at Regent's Park College,University of Oxford,U.K..
Effective altruism (EA) is a 21st-century philosophical and social movement that advocates "using evidence and reason to figure out how to benefit others as much as possible,and taking action on that basis". People who pursue the goals of effective altruism,sometimes called effective altruists,may choose careers based on the amount of good that they expect the career to achieve or donate to charities based on the goal of maximising positive impact. They may work on the prioritization of scientific projects,entrepreneurial ventures,and policy initiatives estimated to save the most lives or reduce the most suffering.
Earning to give involves deliberately pursuing a high-earning career for the purpose of donating a significant portion of earned income,typically because of a desire to do effective altruism. Advocates of earning to give contend that maximizing the amount one can donate to charity is an important consideration for individuals when deciding what career to pursue.
William David MacAskill is a Scottish philosopher and author,as well as one of the originators of the effective altruism movement. He was a Research Fellow at the Global Priorities Institute at the University of Oxford,co-founded Giving What We Can,the Centre for Effective Altruism and 80,000 Hours,and is the author of Doing Good Better (2015) and What We Owe the Future (2022),and the co-author of Moral Uncertainty (2020).
Charity assessment is the process of analysis of the goodness of a non-profit organization in financial terms. Historically,charity evaluators have focused on the question of how much of contributed funds are used for the purpose(s) claimed by the charity,while more recently some evaluators have placed an emphasis on the cost effectiveness of charities.
Kelsey Piper is an American journalist who is a staff writer at Vox,where she writes for the column Future Perfect,which covers a variety of topics from an effective altruism perspective. While attending Stanford University,she founded and ran the Stanford Effective Altruism student organization. Piper blogs at The Unit of Caring.
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