In the past twenty years I have been looking for the most important ideas worth spreading. Here are my personal top ten ideas that I have thought about, discovered or encountered over all those years. The ideas are important because they are either fundamental (a lot of other results can be derived from them) or have a high positive impact (can do a lot of good). These ideas are discussed at length in my book "Rational Animal Ethics. Effective in Means, Consistent in Ends".
Top five ideas in moral philosophy
1. Unwanted arbitrariness
Everyone who makes a choice has to avoid unwanted arbitrariness as much as possible. Unwanted arbitrariness is defined as making a choice without following a rule, whereby the consequences of that choice cannot be consistently wanted by at least one person. If, when making a choice, you cannot give a justification rule of which you would accept universal compliance (where everyone follows that rule in all possible and hypothetical situations), then you are not allowed to make that choice nor follow that rule. If, when making a choice, you cannot give a justification rule of which everyone would accept universal compliance, then you must accept or tolerate that other people make other choices from the same choice set and follow other justification rules for making those choices.
Article: https://stijnbruers.wordpress.com/2021/07/25/unwanted-arbitrariness-dictatorship-and-discrimination/
Infographic : https://stijnbruers.wordpress.com/2022/10/11/unwanted-arbitrariness-infographic/
2. Mild welfarism
We should maximize total discounted welfare: choose the option with the highest sum of welfare of all sentient beings who exist and will exist, minus discounts. Everyone has a right to discount or reject the welfare of others, under the condition that the discounted people cannot validly complain against such discounting. A complaint against that discount becomes invalid if the discount is applied in an option in which the existence of the discounting people (those who discount the welfare of others) is in a sense necessary (the option cannot be chosen if the discounting people did not exist) or the existence of the discounted people (those whose welfare is being discounted) is in a sense not necessary (the option that should be chosen is one where the discounted people do not exist). The right to discount welfare entails the right not to be used against your will as a merely a means for someone else’s ends and the right not to bring more people into existence.
Article: https://stijnbruers.wordpress.com/2022/08/23/mild-welfarism-avoiding-the-demandingness-of-totalitarian-welfarism/
Infographic : https://stijnbruers.wordpress.com/2022/12/26/mild-welfarism-infographic/
3. Universal rights
The rights that you grant, have to be granted to all entities in the universe, without exception. The question then becomes which rights you can grant to everything and everyone. A possible universal right is the right to bodily autonomy, that one’s body is not used as a means against one’s will. This right is trivially satisfied for non-sentient beings who do not have a sense of their bodies and do not have a will.
Article: https://stijnbruers.wordpress.com/2023/01/01/real-universal-rights/
Infographic: https://stijnbruers.wordpress.com/2022/03/30/why-speciesism-is-a-moral-illusion-infographic/
4. Anti-speciesism
We have to abolish speciesism (valuing humans higher than non-human animals), because speciesism is currently the largest kind of discrimination as it involves unwanted arbitrariness on a large scale. Discrimination means treating A (e.g. a human) better than B (e.g. a non-human animal) in a way that B cannot want, based on arbitrary criteria (such as species membership) and without tolerating swapping positions (treating A like B and vice versa). We should extend the moral community or circle of compassion to all sentient beings.
Article: https://stijnbruers.wordpress.com/2018/12/13/speciesism-arbitrariness-and-moral-illusions/
Infographic : https://stijnbruers.wordpress.com/2022/03/30/why-speciesism-is-a-moral-illusion-infographic/
5. Moral illusions
We have to look for and avoid moral illusions, which are persistent intuitive moral judgments that violate our strongest and deepest moral values. Moral illusions are comparable to optical illusions, such the illusion that one line appears to be longer than another line that is in fact equally long.
Article: https://stijnbruers.wordpress.com/2018/12/13/speciesism-arbitrariness-and-moral-illusions/
Infographic: https://stijnbruers.wordpress.com/2022/11/08/moral-illusions-infographic/
Top five ideas in doing good
1. Effective altruism
A small minority of actions (and jobs, charities,…) to improve the world and help others are vastly more effective than the large majority of actions. Many well-intended actions are even counterproductive (do more harm than good). We have to use reason and science to look for the most effective interventions and then support the charities that most effectively execute those interventions.
Article: https://stijnbruers.wordpress.com/2017/06/13/two-most-important-distributions-in-effective-altruism/
Infographic: https://stijnbruers.wordpress.com/2022/12/27/effective-altruism-infographic/
2. Moral footprint
Chicken meat, eggs, shrimp, fish and insect meat have a much larger moral footprint (duration of animal suffering, amount of shortened lifespans) and deathprint (number of sentient beings killed) than pig meat and beef, so we should prioritize reducing the consumption of products from poultry and aquatic animals.
Article: https://stijnbruers.wordpress.com/2022/11/29/the-deathprint-of-replacing-beef-by-chicken-and-insect-meat/
Infographic: https://stijnbruers.wordpress.com/2022/03/27/how-to-reduce-the-duration-of-animal-suffering-infographic/
3. Veganism
We should go vegan and avoid animal products, because animal products are bad for the animals, human health and the environment in many ways. Veganism is a unique win-win-win for humans, animals and nature.
Article: https://stijnbruers.wordpress.com/2018/03/23/is-a-vegan-diet-optimal-for-our-health-and-the-environment/
Infographic: https://stijnbruers.wordpress.com/2020/02/23/the-environmental-health-and-welfare-benefits-of-veganism/
4. Alternative protein
We should support (fund) research and development of animal-free, alternative protein such as plant-based meat, cultivated meat and cellular agriculture, because this is the most effective strategy to reduce farm animal suffering. Donate for example to the Good Food Institute.
Article: https://stijnbruers.wordpress.com/2020/08/10/the-extreme-cost-effectiveness-of-cell-based-meat-rd/
Infographic : https://stijnbruers.wordpress.com/2020/10/07/why-cell-based-meat-will-be-better/
5. Wild animal suffering
The amount of suffering of animals in nature is huge and neglected. We should support scientific research in welfare biology to find safe and effective measures to improve wild animal welfare. Donate for example to Wild Animal Initiative.
Article: https://stijnbruers.wordpress.com/2016/07/20/moral-illusions-and-wild-animal-suffering-neglect/
Infographic : https://stijnbruers.wordpress.com/2022/10/21/wild-animal-suffering-infographic/
Nice post, Stijn!
I would have effective giving.