Why philosophers could be the ones to transform your 2020

bbc.com

17 points·diehunde··6 comments

The 20th century saw the pendulum swing towards an absolute faith in materialism to cure all ills, and today we are seeing the pendulum start to return back toward faith in the immaterial: love, thought, spirit, community, etc.

While material conditions have improved, we are now seeing the consequences of blind faith in materialism. People are waking up to the truth that material comforts do not give their life meaning at all, and I think that's a good thing.

Record suicide rates and opioid addictions are enough to suggest that more and more people find this new way of life devoid of any meaning, and those of us still standing are starting to scratch our heads and search for ways we can do better.

Effective Altruism has changed my life: I'm now giving at least 10% of my income to cost-effective charities thanks to the ideas behind the movement.

Good books to start with:

The Life You Can Save - Peter Singer

The Most Good You Can Do - Peter Singer

Doing Good Better - William MacAskill

Interestingly I found the 'opposite' philosophy most helpful to my life. Objectivism. Never been happier

Well, they did say “changed”, not “improved”.

The philosophy opposite to the idea that charity is the best way to help out with issues in the world is not objectivism (I assume you mean in Ayn Rand's sense). The political philosophy opposite to EA would be perhaps social democracy, and moreso leftism/left-libertarianism. I think there are some good critiques of efforts such as effective alturism out there - or at least, criticisms which say it doesn't go far enough.

Could you in a sentence or two state what you take "Objectivism" is / means?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com