Merging economics, ethics, and action through effective altruism

As the world faces more complex challenges and calls for accountability increase, more and more people are drawn to effective altruism – a philosophy that encourages the use of evidence and reason to determine the most effective ways to help others and take action based on that analysis.

The traction it has gained worldwide has prompted Assistant Professor Martin Mattsson of the Department of Economics at the NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, and Dr Joel Chow from NUS College and the NUS College of Humanities and Sciences (CHS), to offer a new CHS course titled ‘Effective Altruism in Theory and Practice’ to all NUS undergraduates in the current academic semester.

Marrying the principles of economics and philosophy, students learn how to evaluate non-empirical values such as our moral obligation towards the global poor, animals, and future populations and simultaneously think like economists by understanding market forces and risks. The interdisciplinary course also touches on subjects like political science, psychology, engineering, and computer science.

NUS’ ‘Effective Altruism in Theory and Practice’ is currently one of only a few university courses in the world devoted to the topic, and is likely to grow in popularity in the coming years.

“The main goal of the course is to provide students with strategies for how to answer the question, ‘How can I benefit others as much as possible?’ and hopefully inspire some students to act on their own answers to that question,” says Dr Mattsson. “To do this, we discuss different theories for what constitutes morally good behaviour, as well as basic economic logic and evidence. Finally we do a deep dive into three fields that many in the Effective Altruism community think are areas where one can benefit others a lot.”

Read more about what the class offers here.