#15 - Richard Chappell: effective altruism, normativity and moral realism

Richard Y. Chappell is a moral philosopher and Associate Professor at the University of Miami. He works on effective altruism, utilitarianism, moral realism, digital minds, and the ethics of the far future. He co-authored An Introduction to Utilitarianism and writes at the blog Good Thoughts, follow Richard on Twitter

We talk about doing good effectively, moral truth, AI consciousness, and why compassion needs reason. Topics and ideas are outlined in the timestamps below.

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Timestamps

0:00 – Intro

0:24 – What is effective altruism?

4:08 – Longtermism & future risks

9:34 – Beneficentrism vs utilitarianism

14:56 – Donating 10%

17:16 – Emotions vs reason

19:09 – Writing with MacAskill

20:28 – What is moral realism?

24:35 – Liberalism vs relativism

25:12 – Why normativity matters

26:30 – Reason vs evolution

28:50 – Conscious AI

30:28 – Who counts morally?

33:55 – Mechanistic minds?

34:52 – Books that shaped him

35:24 – Defining personhood

37:30 – Should philosophers reach people?

40:43 – Status quo bias

43:07 – The meaning of life

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