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SHOULD YOU GIVE TO BEGGARS? YES, YOU SHOULD

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 September 2016

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Abstract

Should you give to beggars? One argument that you should not is that since there are people who are much worse off than beggars, to give to a beggar is to deny some assistance to those who need it most. You should give instead to the most poor, and in general, you ought in your action to do the most good you can. This argument was defended in a paper published recently in /Think/, and the principle that lies behind it is the basis of a popular movement called ‘effective altruism’. I attack that argument in this paper. Morality does not require of you merely that you do the most good; there is more to it than that.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy 2016 

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References

Notes

1 Moen, O.MShould we give money to beggars?Think, 2014, 13 (37), 7376 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2 Orwell, G. 1943 ‘Can Socialists Be Happy?’ Tribune December 24th reprinted in Essays (London: Everyman, 2002)Google Scholar.

3 Morris, W. ‘The Dream of John Ball’, 1888, reprinted in G.D.H. Cole (ed.) William Morris (London: Nonesuch, 1934).