The Global Priorities Institute is an interdisciplinary research centre at the University of Oxford.
Our aim is to conduct foundational research that informs the decision-making of individuals and institutions seeking to do as much good as possible. We use the tools of multiple academic disciplines, especially philosophy, economics and psychology, to explore the issues at stake.
We prioritise projects whose contributions are unlikely to be otherwise made by the normal run of academic research, and that speak directly to the most crucial considerations such an actor must confront.
Featured links
Papers
‘The only ethical argument for positive š¯›æ’? – Andreas Mogensen (Global Priorities Institute, Oxford University)
I consider whether a positive rate of pure intergenerational time preference is justifiable in terms of agent-relative moral reasons relating to partiality between generations, an idea I call ā€‹discounting for kinshipā€‹. I respond to Parfit’s objections to discounting for kinship, but then highlight a number of apparent limitations of this…
Read MoreHilary Greaves: Book review of Scheffler’s “Why worry about future generations?”
We occupy an unusual point in history. Throughout most of human history, conditions have been relatively stable from one generation to the next. Each generation mostly did the best it could for itself, bequeathing to the next generation an Earth in roughly the same state, save perhaps for a little…
Read MoreWilliam MacAskill: Effective Altruism
The world we live in today is home to many serious problems. You might have heard that over 750 million people live on less than US $2 per day1, or that millions of children die each year of easily preventable causes such as malaria, diarrhea, or pneumonia.2 You know that climate…
Read More
