There is no objective fact of the matter regarding moral standards. Rather, we want a moral system that can be widely adopted and that when widely adopted promotes things we find good.
A moral system that said “you have to spend every waking moment curing malaria and feeding the hungry” would probably either just make people feel burned out and miserable or else be rejected outright. Many imaginable and prima facie plausible moral systems turn out to say that. A moral system that said “just do whatever the hell you want” would probably lead to few people bothering to cure malaria and feed the hungry.
It seems plausible to me that a system that says “you should be making things better for others but it’s fine to devote most of your time and energy and resources to your own welfare and that of your family” does, given human nature, actually roughly maximize net good done. I expect the optimum is more demanding than the average person’s actual moral system, but probably not (much?) more demanding than the average effective altruist’s.
There is no objective fact of the matter regarding moral standards. Rather, we want a moral system that can be widely adopted and that when widely adopted promotes things we find good.
A moral system that said “you have to spend every waking moment curing malaria and feeding the hungry” would probably either just make people feel burned out and miserable or else be rejected outright. Many imaginable and prima facie plausible moral systems turn out to say that. A moral system that said “just do whatever the hell you want” would probably lead to few people bothering to cure malaria and feed the hungry.
It seems plausible to me that a system that says “you should be making things better for others but it’s fine to devote most of your time and energy and resources to your own welfare and that of your family” does, given human nature, actually roughly maximize net good done. I expect the optimum is more demanding than the average person’s actual moral system, but probably not (much?) more demanding than the average effective altruist’s.