William MacAskill on Effective Altruism, Moral Progress, and Cultural Innovation
Conversations with Tyler
Conversations with Tyler
4.8 • 2.4K Ratings
🗓️ 10 August 2022
⏱️ 51 minutes
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Summary
When Tyler is reviewing grants for Emergent Ventures, he is struck by how the ideas of effective altruism have so clearly influenced many of the smartest applicants, particularly the younger ones. And William MacAskill, whom Tyler considers one of the world’s most influential philosophers, is a leading light of the community.
William joined Tyler to discuss why the movement has gained so much traction and more, including his favorite inefficient charity, what form of utilitarianism should apply to the care of animals, the limits of expected value, whether effective altruists should be anti-abortion, whether he would side with aliens over humans, whether he should give up having kids, why donating to a university isn’t so bad, whether we are living in “hingey” times, why buildering is overrated, the sociology of the effective altruism movement, why cultural innovation matters, and whether starting a new university might be next on his slate.
Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video.
Recorded July 7th, 2022
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Conversations with Tyler is produced by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, |
| 0:09.4 | bridging the gap between academic ideas and real world problems. |
| 0:13.5 | Learn more at mercatis.org. |
| 0:16.2 | For full transcript of every conversation, enhanced with helpful links, visit |
| 0:21.0 | ConversationsWithT Tyler.com |
| 0:27.0 | Hello everyone and welcome back to ConversationsWithT Tyler. |
| 0:30.5 | Today I'm here with Will McAskill, who is one of the most important and influential |
| 0:35.1 | philosophers period. |
| 0:36.6 | And August 16th is the publication date of his new and excellent book, What We O The Future. |
| 0:42.2 | Will most of all is known for being a leader, perhaps the intellectual leader, |
| 0:47.1 | of the Effective Altruism Movement. |
| 0:49.0 | Well, welcome. |
| 0:50.4 | Thanks so much for having me on. |
| 0:52.7 | Of all the inefficient things, which is the one you love most? |
| 0:57.1 | Of all the inefficient things, I mean there are some amazing examples of inefficient |
| 1:02.4 | charities that I love in the sense that they give me pleasure to think about. |
| 1:07.3 | One of my favorites is a charity called Scotscare, which was set up in the early 17th century. |
| 1:12.7 | It's called The Charity for Scots in London. |
| 1:15.9 | And it's dedicated to help Scottish people in poverty in London. |
| 1:20.8 | And you might think that's a pretty strange aim, but it made more sense when the charity |
| 1:25.3 | was set up in the early 17th century. |
| 1:28.1 | There was just recently the personal union of England and Scotland. |
... |
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