Overwhelming obligations

The drowning child argument, which has persuaded many people to join the effective altruism movement, highlights one of EA’s central concepts: Opportunity costs. The money spent on expensive clothes/shoes could instead be used to donate to cost-effective charities, where it can save the life of a person in Africa. Of course, the force of the argument does not stop there: If you have more money left, or if you could work for a few extra hours to earn more money, that too can be used to help additional people. Every decision we make has opportunity costs – this realization can feel overwhelming.

Several critics consider the ideas behind effective altruism flawed or impractical because they appear to demand too much from people. In his widely cited essay A Critique of Utilitarianism, Bernard Williams argues that the idea of always trying to bring about the best outcome¹ places too high a burden on a person by taking away their choice in what they want to do in life:

It is to alienate him in a real sense from his actions and the source of his action in his own convictions. It is to make him into a channel between the input of everyone’s projects, including his own, and an output of optimific decision; but this is to neglect the extent to which his actions and his decisions have to be seen as the actions and decisions which flow from the projects and attitudes with which he is most closely identified. It is thus, in the most literal sense, an attack on his integrity.

The same of course also applies to women.

When I first read Williams’ critique a few years ago, I already considered myself an effective altruist and, as such, I found the arguments surprisingly unimpressive. I felt that obviously, if someone’s goal is to make the world a better place, this is the person’s decision and chosen life-project. But, as I’m now more aware of than before, people have the tendency to overestimate how similar other people are to themselves. I was already so immersed into EA-thinking that I forgot how I felt before. Williams’ critique highlights an important point: If people are altruistically motivated but have other goals in life besides doing the most amount of good, or if they have other commitments that contribute to their self-identity and happiness, then they m

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