Effective Altruism

I took this course to suppliment Professor Paul Bloom's course "Moralities of Everyday Life." That was an entertaining course, and Professor Bloom spoke of Peter Singer as having a massive influence on his ideas, so I chose to check this one out to see what it's about.

I'm grateful for "Effective Altruism" course because it shined light on some important considerations that are often overlooked when deciding how to give charity. It was eye-opening and counter-cultural. He does not tell us "follow your heart to do the most good." Proffesor Singer also does not believe that empathy and seeing the people you help as individuals is necessary to do good. Instead, he believes that it is our duty to try to do what will bring the most benefit to the most people.

I can see how some people might be put off by the dispassionate nature of this course's content. The "effective" in "effective altruism" is key here. If you want guidance into what charities will produce the best results, this is for you; if you are looking for guidance into how to love others indiscriminately and find the drive to work towards it in your life, I would instead recommend the course "Love as a Force for Social Justice" from Stanford.

There was some discussion of the philosophy behind altrusim and morality, but this was an overall practical class. Professor Singer's brought in real life examples of people who engage in effective altrusim, and he introduced certain charities and organizations to us to learn how they operate behind the scenes. In the former cases, the lectures appeared to be recorded in his actual classes he taught, so a "live" Q&A was possible between the students and the guests.

There are many information-packed reading suggestions, although reading is not required to get the course certificate. Some of the articles were easy to access online. Others, it appeared the only way to get them was in print. They were packed with facts and opinions. Although I finished the course, I'm still trying to read through all these interesting and pertinent articles.

Taken as a whole, it was thought-provoking and undeniably vital in developing my strategy for how I donate to charities. However, are certain cardinal assumptions that I felt may have been overstated and simplistically presented. For example, overwhelming, the focus was on developing countries' plights (e.g. malaria, HIV/Aids, undernourishment), "effective" often seemed implicitly defined by "the number of lives saved" not improved, and the gain versus cost monetary-wise was the way that it was measured. This rubbed me the wrong way as a sustainability major; when the focus was on saving the most lives possible immediately and solely through how money is spent, it seemed to make sacrifices in other important areas- resource allocation, nested power struggles, and soil health to name a few- for fighting poverty.

This is certainly a great course to begin learning about the steps you can take towards effective altruism, but it is also not an end point. The ideas presented here for making the greatest impact are just that- opinions and ideas. Use the tools and knowledge and experience and skills you have in addition to the suggestions and resources in this course to decide how you will engage in "effective altruism."

Thank you for taking the time to create this, Professor Singer and all that took part.

i like this course. it is fun. makes you ponder, starts off a bit tedious, and then ends pretty cool and simplified. i think its effective in getting people to give if they earn. like that he utilizes the people who have taken his course, read his books, which further legitimizes his own outlook & opinion. he is pretty unbiased in his delivery and open to different views. course requires more reading than anticipated, originally hoped it was mere videos of discussions, classes and interactive modules. the quiz between videos makes it more worth it (for me) because i like any fun interactive component to learning that helps reinforce what i just learned. the jargon can be a bit confusing because the lingo is similar, but if youre familiar with any popularized philosopher its easier to get dredge through. hard to complete via phne, and some minor issues via formatting but other than that, for a free course, wont complain, it was refreshing.

I tend to like courses that do the recordings for the course anew more, since recording existing lectures seems a bit lazy. However, these lectures were interesting, but sometimes it was difficult to hear audience questions. There are no assignments except for one essay, and the course does not offer certificates. The issues learned are important, but I was expecting more ethics and philosophical issues, rather than presenting people and charities, it seemed more like advertising certain charities. However, there is a nice exercise in which you have to pick a charity, but the discussion forums were empty, there were no mentors, and there was no one to discuss the choice with. This course would be better in a session-based system, and with more theoretical issues rather than just talks.

This course is a wonderfully concise exploration of key considerations in ethics, and how taking an ethical approach to life may or may not serve you, depending on your personal point of view. In a time of individuality and self-interest, this is a refreshing way to consider how everyone, large and small, rich and poor, can and does impact the world. How aware are you of the impact you already have and deliberately can have? Can you be successful AND an effective altruist? Laden with fascinating old school philosophy and modern day approaches to charity economics, this course is both reflective and practical, including how to find and use tools to help prioritise where to invest charity money to make sure each dollar goes as fas as it can to improve and save lives. Thank you.