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Intelligence Squared

Effective Altruism: A Better Way to Lead an Ethical Life

Intelligence Squared

Intelligence Squared

Arts, News, Society & Culture, News Commentary

4.21.1K Ratings

🗓️ 4 December 2015

⏱️ 62 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Almost all of us want to make a difference in our lives. So we give to charity, recycle, volunteer, or cut down our carbon emissions. But are we getting it right? In a world where ever more data is available, shouldn’t we be paying closer attention to the measurable effects of our altruistic actions? Why, for example do we spend so much time and effort researching hotels and restaurants online while we rarely bother to investigate the effectiveness of the charities we donate to? Are we more concerned with feeling good about ourselves than actually doing good? Enter William MacAskill, rising star philosopher at Oxford University and co-founder of the Effective Altruism movement. MacAskill’s new book 'Doing Good Better' has won acclaim from the likes of Peter Singer and Steven Pinker. Bill Gates, perhaps the world’s greatest philanthropist, has even described him as ‘a data nerd after my own heart.’ By crunching the numbers, MacAskill has shown that the standard ways of doing good often turn out to be less... Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/intelligencesquared. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

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Don't invest unless you're prepared to lose all the money you invest. This is a high-risk investment and you should not expect to be protected if something goes wrong.

0:57.0

Thank you for downloading this Intelligence Square podcast.

1:00.0

For more information on our debates, talks and discussions,

1:03.5

visit Intelligencesquare.com and sign up to the newsletter.

1:07.0

Welcome everybody here to this event tonight.

1:11.0

Now it's quite interesting, we do spend an awful lot of money

1:15.8

being good and before I came here I just had a look at some of the statistics

1:21.6

for how much we do spend being nice to the rest of the world.

1:26.7

And I look to the Charities Aid Foundation who do an annual report on how much we give. Eight out of ten of us over the last year participated in some form

1:39.6

of charitable giving or charitable event.

...

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