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Articles

The Philosophy of Giving

Claire Hamlett reports on two new altruistic initiatives launched by philosophers.

If you’re reading this then it’s probably safe to assume that you have an interest in philosophy. If so, at one time or another you may have encountered some rather derisive attitudes towards our beloved subject, perhaps heard some snide comments about its uselessness and that of its practitioners. As an aesthetician, I may have some trouble convincing the world that it really does matter whether Hume’s standard of taste is circular or not (it’s not); but a cluster of recent initiatives suggests that moral philosophers might be making more headway in their attempts to incorporate philosophical thinking into the everyday lives of philosophers and non-philosophers alike.

We don’t need to look far to find evidence that philosophy can and does play a part in the choices people make. Not only has the ethicist Professor Peter Singer, like a vampire of moral reasoning, turned a large portion of the more philosophically-minded public into vegetarians, but his 1972 essay ‘Famine, Affluence, and Morality’ has since inspired Oxford University scholar Toby Ord to found an altruistic organisation called Giving What We Can (GWWC).

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