• A lovingly critical review focused on issues of risk, aggregation, autonomy, and supererogation.
  • Collective harm and the inefficacy problem
    Philosophy Compass 14 (4). 2019.
    This paper discusses the inefficacy problem that arises in contexts of “collective harm.‘ These are contexts in which by acting in a certain sort of way, people collectively cause harm, or fail to prevent it, but no individual act of the relevant sort seems to itself make a difference. The inefficacy problem is that if acting in the relevant way won’t make a difference, it’s unclear why it would be wrong. Each individual can argue, “things will be just as bad whether or not I act in this way, so…Read more
  • “Secondary Permissibility” and the Ethics of Harming
    Journal of Moral Philosophy 18 (2): 156-177. 2020.
    There is a moral phenomenon of “Secondary Permissibility” in which an otherwise morally impermissible option is made morally permissible by the presence of another option. In this paper I explain how this phenomenon works and argue that understanding how it works suggests a new model for the structure of the ethics of harming.
  • Hilary Greaves and Theron Pummer (eds.), Effective Altruism: Philosophical Issues (review)
    Journal of Moral Philosophy 18 (1): 99-102. 2021.
  • Effective Altruism: How Big Should the Tent Be?
    Public Affairs Quarterly 32 (4): 269-287. 2018.
    The effective altruism movement (EA) is one of the most influential philosophically savvy movements to emerge in recent years. Effective Altruism has historically been dedicated to finding out what charitable giving is the most overall-effective, that is, the most effective at promoting or maximizing the impartial good. But some members of EA want the movement to be more inclusive, allowing its members to give in the way that most effectively promotes their values, even when doing so isn’t overa…Read more