Singer’s Pond Example and Some Worries about Effective Altruism

Abstract

Chapter 3 discusses Peter Singer’s famous Pond Example, which helped inspire the Effective Altruism Movement. It shows that while most people’s intuitive reactions to Singer’s example are compatible with Effective Altruism, those intuitions are also compatible with pluralism, as opposed to monism. Furthermore, Chapter 3 offer several arguments and examples to show that we should, in fact, adopt a pluralistic approach to thinking about global poverty, rather than the narrow, monistic, “do the most good” approach of Effective Altruism. Chapter 3 suggests that in responding to the needy a truly decent person must be open to the full range of moral considerations relevant to the situation; among other things, this will involve being virtuous (heeding considerations of virtue) and acting rightly or permissibly (heeding considerations of deontology), as well as promoting as much good as one can (heeding considerations of utilitarianism).