DEATH IN A SHALLOW POND: The Birth of Effective Altruism

Imagine you’re walking past a shallow pond and spot a toddler in obvious danger of drowning. You’re the only person who can save them and you must act immediately. But you remember that you’re wearing your most expensive shoes and wading into the water will ruin them. Should you let the child drown?

In 1972 philosopher Peter Singer proposed this thought experiment to argue that allowing people in the developing world to die, when we could easily help them by giving money to charity, is as morally reprehensible as saving our shoes instead of the drowning child. Can this possibly be true?

Join David Edmonds as he discusses his new book, Death in a Shallow Pond, and argues that the concept still retains the power to shape how we live in a world in which terrible and unnecessary suffering persists.

David traces the remarkable story of Singer and his controversial idea; how it radically changed the way we think about poverty, the establishment of the Effective Altruism movement, and also how it provoked scathing criticisms for being unrealistic and counterproductive.

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