Introduction

Abstract

Chapter 1 starts by noting that ours is a rich world with pockets of devastation. It notes the book’s different audiences, including philosophers, development economists, aid workers, Effective Altruists, students, and ordinary folks. It explains the book’s philosophical methodology, including its engagement with Peter Singer’s Pond Example, Angus Deaton’s worry that global aid often undermines government responsiveness, and the book’s focus on worries about aid. It discusses intuitions and innocence, and introduces terminology. Chapter 1 introduces Effective Altruism, with whose approach to global need the book engages, and it also overviews the book. Finally, Chapter 1 concludes by observing that while the author remains a strong aid proponent, it is now much less clear to him, than it once was, to whom aid should be directed, the form aid should take, and how to trade off between the complex, often competing, considerations relevant to being good in a world of need.