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Some efforts to improve the world can be much more impactful than others. The eradication of smallpox, the abolitionist movement, and the Green Revolution are just a few examples which illustrate what’s possible when people come together to solve pressing problems. But those projects are few and far between. At the other end of the spectrum, many well-intended initiatives are ineffective or even counterproductive. Discerning between the good and bad is the perennial challenge every generation faces, and yet the coming century is poised to be the most consequential yet: how we maneuver challenges over the next hundred years may drastically affect the trajectory of humankind.
<aside> <img src="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/e1710964-b0d6-47e5-acdf-7a055d525829/ea-logo-square-1200x1200__1_.png" alt="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/e1710964-b0d6-47e5-acdf-7a055d525829/ea-logo-square-1200x1200__1_.png" width="40px" /> Effective Altruism Duke is inviting applications for the fourth session of the Arete Fellowship, a selective program — now offered at dozens of universities across the world — that will offer an accelerated introduction to Effective Altruism ("EA") for students who are highly motivated to think rationally about their potential to have a positive impact on the world.
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Put simply, EA is both a philosophy and a community of people centered around the desire to do the most good possible — given the world’s limited resources and our own limited time, energy, and talents. We think something incredible is true: there are extraordinary opportunities to change the world that most people don’t realize exist. There are important insights that can enable rationally-minded people to increase their impact by many orders of magnitude.
EA has two distinct components:
The Arete Fellowship offers a deep, semester-long dive into the Effective Altruism movement and its ideas.
Philosopher Peter Singer helped to lay much of the theoretical groundwork that supports the Effective Altruism movement. You can find his TED talk on The Why and How of Effective Altruism here.
Other introductory resources include:
<aside> <img src="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/96709163-bfae-4d47-846d-c1d04ba771dc/ea-logo-square-1200x1200__1_.png" alt="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/96709163-bfae-4d47-846d-c1d04ba771dc/ea-logo-square-1200x1200__1_.png" width="40px" /> Introduction to Effective Altruism
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<aside> <img src="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/c3d662a1-8cf9-43d3-8717-4c958f3de630/ted-talks-logo-png-6.png" alt="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/c3d662a1-8cf9-43d3-8717-4c958f3de630/ted-talks-logo-png-6.png" width="40px" /> Philosopher Will MacAskill: What are the most important moral problems of our time?
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<aside> <img src="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/39ecaa31-e20e-4e43-8590-6207197c4e48/Wikipedia-W-bold-in-square-Clean.svg" alt="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/39ecaa31-e20e-4e43-8590-6207197c4e48/Wikipedia-W-bold-in-square-Clean.svg" width="40px" /> Effective altruism
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