In this book, Temkin engages sympathetically but critically with both the philosophical views and the practical recommendations of effective altruists like Peter Singer. Specifically, he raises a number of challenges to the view that one of the most important things that the well-off among us can and ought to do in order to live a morally good life in a world of need...Temkin emphasizes repeatedly that he has long been, and remains, a strong proponent of aiding the badly off (44, 295, 318), and that at least most of what he argues in the book is compatible with the broad spirit of effective altruism.
Larry S. Temkin is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers. He graduated number one from the University of Wisconsin/Madison before pursuing graduate work at Oxford and earning his PhD from Princeton. He is the author of Inequality, hailed as "one of the [20th century's] most important contributions to analytical political philosophy" and of Rethinking the Good, described as a "tour de force" and "a genuinely awe-inspiring achievement." Temkin's approach to equality has been adopted by the World Health Organization. An award-winning teacher, he has received fellowships from Harvard, All Souls College and Corpus Christi College at Oxford, the National Institutes of Health, the Australian National University, the National Humanities Center, the Danforth Foundation, and Princeton.