What is Effective Altruism?
Effective Altruism is a growing movement which combines compassion and reason to find the best opportunities to make the world a better place.
The Effective Altruism community consists of people who are committed to doing good, who continually question what that means, and who use evidence and reason to achieve it.
Introduction to Effective Altruism
This introduction to effective altruism found on effectivealtruism.org is a great primer for what we mean when we talk about effective altruism. It outlines the frame work of decision making within the community and then talks a bit about what cause areas they think this leads to.
The Effective Altruism Handbook
The EA handbook is an introduction to some of the core concepts in effective altruism. If you’re new to effective altruism, it should give you an overview of the key ideas and problems that have been found so far. If you have already engaged with effective altruism, there should be some new insights amongst the familiar ideas. The pieces are a mix of essays and adaptations of conference talks.
80,000 Hours Key Ideas
This is a guide to help you pick the most impactful career: You have 80,000 hours in your career - spending 1 or 2 of your hours reading this guide will help you work out how to spend the rest of them in a fulfilling career that does good. This guide is based on research by 80,000 Hours alongside academics at Oxford.
Continually updated resources
Books
These are available to borrow from Effective Altruism Oxford. Get in touch through info.eaoxford@gmail.com.
Doing Good Better by Will MacAskill
A good introductory book about the ideas of effective altruism, showing how you can have a large impact using fewer resources than you might have first thought.
A careers guide by 80,000 Hours this is a good way to re-frame how you think about your career and how you might use it to do good
Recommended further reading
Those marked with an asterisk * are available to borrow from Effective Altruism Oxford. Get in touch through info.eaoxford@gmail.com.
Effective Altruism: Philosophical Issues edited by Hilary Greaves and Theron Pummer
This is the first collective study of the thinking behind the effective altruism movement. This movement comprises a growing global community of people who organise significant parts of their lives around the two key concepts represented in its name
*Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies by Nick Bostrom
Superintelligence asks the questions: What happens when machines surpass humans in general intelligence? Will artificial agents save or destroy us? Nick Bostrom lays the foundation for understanding the future of humanity and intelligent life.
*Animal Liberation by Peter Singer
Considered the founding text of the animal liberation movement, in this book Singer introduces the concept of speciesism, and argues that the interests of animals should be considered because of their ability to experience suffering.
Reasons and Persons by Derek Parfit
A more advanced discussion about morality, personal identity, and rationality.
*Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
A book discussing how we make decisions, and how our brains can often be tripped up by errors even when we think we are being logical.
Rationality: From AI to Zombies by Eliezer Yudkowsky
An ebook containing six books worth of essays on the science and philosophy of human rationality, including existential risk and cognitive bias.