William MacAskill Books
William MacAskill is a Scottish philosopher and associate professor at the University of Oxford. He is a co-founder of the effective altruism movement and organizations such as Giving What We Can and 80,000 Hours.
Known for: What We Owe the Future, Doing Good Better: Effective Altruism and a Radical New Way to Make a Difference
Books by William MacAskill
What We Owe the Future
In this influential work, philosopher William MacAskill explores the moral importance of shaping the long-term future of humanity. He argues that our actions today can profoundly affect countless gene...
Doing Good Better: Effective Altruism and a Radical New Way to Make a Difference
Doing Good Better introduces the philosophy and movement of effective altruism, which seeks to use evidence and reason to determine the most effective ways to improve the world. William MacAskill argu...
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Introduction to Longtermism
The foundational idea of longtermism emerges from a simple yet radical claim: future people matter morally just as much as the living. If we take that seriously, the implications ripple through every sphere of ethics, policy, and personal decision-making. I begin by contrasting our commonplace moral...
From What We Owe the Future
The Scale of the Future
When people grasp the enormity of time that may stretch ahead of us, the moral stakes of the future become almost incomprehensible. If humanity avoids self-destruction, it could continue for millions or even billions of years. The number of potential future lives vastly exceeds those who have ever l...
From What We Owe the Future
Understanding Charity Effectiveness and Emotional Giving
One of the biggest challenges in doing good is our reliance on intuition and emotion. Most charitable decisions start with what feels right: we give to a local shelter we’ve visited, a hospital that treated a loved one, or a cause that’s popular in the moment. In *Doing Good Better*, I challenge thi...
From Doing Good Better: Effective Altruism and a Radical New Way to Make a Difference
Cause Prioritization: Focusing on the World’s Most Pressing Problems
No matter how much we care, our resources are finite. We cannot solve every problem; we must choose where our efforts will have the greatest leverage. In the book, I explain the principle of cause prioritization—the art of identifying which global issues are most urgent, neglected, and solvable. Thi...
From Doing Good Better: Effective Altruism and a Radical New Way to Make a Difference
About William MacAskill
William MacAskill is a Scottish philosopher and associate professor at the University of Oxford. He is a co-founder of the effective altruism movement and organizations such as Giving What We Can and 80,000 Hours. His work focuses on ethics, decision theory, and how individuals can use evidence and ...
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William MacAskill is a Scottish philosopher and associate professor at the University of Oxford. He is a co-founder of the effective altruism movement and organizations such as Giving What We Can and 80,000 Hours. His work focuses on ethics, decision theory, and how individuals can use evidence and ...
William MacAskill is a Scottish philosopher and associate professor at the University of Oxford. He is a co-founder of the effective altruism movement and organizations such as Giving What We Can and 80,000 Hours. His work focuses on ethics, decision theory, and how individuals can use evidence and reason to do the most good.
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William MacAskill is a Scottish philosopher and associate professor at the University of Oxford. He is a co-founder of the effective altruism movement and organizations such as Giving What We Can and 80,000 Hours.
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