The Most Good You Can Do
How The Science of Logic, Love, and Morality are Changing Ideas About The Ethics of Altruism
The Most Good You Can Do
How The Science of Logic, Love, and Morality are Changing Ideas About The Ethics of Altruism
The Most Good Conference | 10/10/2024 | Brooklyn
The Most Good You Can Do: How The Science of Logic, Love, and Morality are Changing Ideas About The Ethics of Altruism
Addressing society’s biggest challenges–such as pandemics, global poverty, and climate change–requires a universal sense of care and altruism that includes distant strangers, non-human animals and even future generations. While people deeply love and care about the welfare of close others like family and friends, they rarely have an expansive and universal scope of moral concern that encompasses all living beings. There are, however, a diverse array of notable exceptions. Populations like effective altruists, living organ donors, animal welfare advocates, and longtermists, while not without detractors, view the suffering of all living beings more equally, regardless of how distant or dissimilar they may be.
- What can we learn about the aspects of the human mind supporting exceptional care and altruism by investigating similarities and differences across populations?
- How can we expand our moral circle of concern to include distant strangers, non-human life, and future generations?
- What are the promises and pitfalls of effective altruism?
- Why do people donate organs to strangers?
- Are there social limits to universal love and care, or are they potentially limitless? That is, does a more universal sense of love and care diminish the quality of close relationships, or are these relationships unfazed or even strengthened?
- Is empathy a source of bias or equality?
- How can we do the most good?
The Most Good Conference brings together world leading and emerging scholars across psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, behavioral economics, and philanthropy to share new scientific findings and insights that are changing how to think about the ethics of altruism and equality. Speakers and attendees will discuss the science of logic, love, and morality to reveal a deeper understanding of the cognitive, affective, social, and moral antecedents and consequences of exceptional altruism (e.g., effective altruism, living organ donation, intergenerational beneficence, animal welfare) with implications for expanding and fostering a more universal sense of care and altruism in society more broadly. With the generous support of the John Templeton Foundation, this event is hosted by Brendan Bo O'Connor, Associate Professor of Psychology and Director of the Imagination and Cognition Lab at SUNY Albany, and Kyle Fiore Law, Postdoctoral Researcher in the Morality Lab at Boston College.
Conference Organizers
Brendan Bo O'Connor
Brendan Bo O'Connor
Brendan Bo O'Connor
Associate Professor of Psychology
SUNY Albany
Conference Co-Organizer
Kyle Fiore Law
Brendan Bo O'Connor
Brendan Bo O'Connor
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Department of Psychology and Neuroscience
Boston College
Conference Co-Organizer
Speakers
Paul Bloom
Daryl Cameron
Daryl Cameron
Professor of Psychology
University of Toronto |
Brooks and Suzanne Ragen Professor Emeritus of Psychology
Yale University
Daryl Cameron
Daryl Cameron
Daryl Cameron
Associate Professor
Department of Psychology
Penn State University |
Sherwin Early Career Professor/Senior Research Associate
Rock Ethics Institute
Abigail Marsh
Daryl Cameron
Abigail Marsh
Professor
Department of Psychology
Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Program Georgetown University
David Pizarro
Jim A.C. Everett
Abigail Marsh
Lucius Caviola
Jim A.C. Everett
Jim A.C. Everett
Senior Research Fellow
Oxford Global Priorities Institute |
Research Affiliate
Department of Psychology
Harvard University
Jim A.C. Everett
Jim A.C. Everett
Jim A.C. Everett
Matti Wilks
Paige Amormino
Paige Amormino
Paige Amormino
Paige Amormino
Paige Amormino
Joshua Lewis
Paige Amormino
Stylianos Syropoulos
Stylianos Syropoulos
Christina (Jin) Capozzoli
Stylianos Syropoulos
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society
Department of Psychology and Neuroscience
Boston College
Matthew Lindauer
Christina (Jin) Capozzoli
Christina (Jin) Capozzoli
Assistant Professor of Philosophy
Brooklyn College
Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Psychology
CUNY Graduate Center
Christina (Jin) Capozzoli
Christina (Jin) Capozzoli
Christina (Jin) Capozzoli
Master of Applied Statistics Student
Penn State University