Altruism, Ethics, and Planning

By Timothy Beatley

Few people in the world have done more to help us understand the ethical dimensions of practical, everyday choices than philosopher Peter Singer. Singer made a philosophical splash in 1975 with the publication of his groundbreaking book Animal Liberation, which became (and still is) a major manifesto underpinning the animal rights movement. Splitting his time between Princeton University and the University of Melbourne, he writes prolifically about a variety of ethical and philosophical topics.

One of his most recent books, The Most Good You Can Do, deliberates an important question — one that has no doubt crossed the mind of many a planner: What can I do to make the biggest impact during my life, help the most people, and change the world in the most significant way possible? It is a perennial topic for Singer, and a profound and important question worth pondering. The book, published in 2015, has spawned a global movement called Effective Altruism that explores the practical answer to this question.

Intrigued, I recently spoke to Singer about his work on altruism and some of the important ethical dimensions of urban planning, city design, and environmental policy, and what both concepts mean for planners.

Creating public spaces and parks is just one way planners can contribute to the greater good. Evidence not only shows that nature and greenery enhance people's wellbeing, but also that people are more likely to be generous and cooperative when in the presence of nature. "Tanner Springs Park" by Graham Ballantyne, Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).

Effective Altruism 101

The key to the Effective Altruism movement is the belief that humans have a duty to maximize the good one does on behalf of others and the larger world, and to use our resources (e.g., money, time) effectively and efficiently to that end. For example, Singer tells of individuals who have donated from one-third to half of their incomes to organizations that are effective at reducing global poverty. Matt Wage, a former student of Singer's who now speaks to Singer's classes at Princeton, says he even felt obliged to take a high-paying job on Wall Street to be able to give more and therefore have a greater impact on the world.

Money isn't always the most effective path to altruism. Another legitimate approach is acting and making commitments on behalf of future generations, animals, or the natural environment. An effective altruist might pursue a career as an environmental planner, or work as an advocate, or become an activist or community volunteer.

Effective altruism can also extend to the collective level, through our voting for and support of political candidates we think will govern with the greatest effect, as those elected officials, in turn, determine which policies or collective decisions will aid the most people.

There are obstacles to this movement, of course. A big one is humans' tendency toward self-interest, something Singer sees as tied to our evolutionary past. While the impulse toward altruism is present in many of us, it may be latent and may not manifest in our lives, actions, or behavior.

Still, Singer is optimistic about our ability to cultivate altruism and bring about positive outcomes in the world. He gave me an example from his hometown of Port Phillip, a community in the Melbourne, Australia, metro area, which undertook a recent campaign to encourage smiling to enhance well-being.

The local council developed a method for measurement and then placed signage along certain streets indicating the "smiles per hour" observed there. Singer explains, "The test was, if you walked down the street with your head up and with a sort of positive look on your face, with a smile on your face, how many people smiled back at you."

Evidence suggests that when we are happier, we are more likely to be altruistic. Singer cites a classic experiment in which participants who found a dime while making a call at a payphone were then more likely to help someone who had dropped papers nearby.

This is one place where planners can play a role. Planners are uniquely positioned to help create places — public spaces, parks, and green spaces — that increase people's well-being. There is new evidence that individuals in the presence of nature and greenery are more likely to be generous and cooperative. Therefore, physical design and planning are at once both outcomes of altruism and determinants of it.

Ethical quandaries

Singer is a strong advocate of what he calls practical ethics — a recognition that ethics is not just academic or theoretical, but can and must help us in working through tangible problems. In his view, there are virtually no realms of our daily lives or life choices absent ethics. Even the decision to ignore the ethical aspects of a choice is in itself an ethical decision. From the food you eat, to where you live, to whether or how often you drive, you make ethical decisions every day.

These choices are made at the community level and in the public realm, too, from influencing residents' accessibility to local, organically grown produce to city support for renewable energy and greenhouse gas emissions reduction efforts. Further, we're all connected these days, and Singer believes we have an ethical duty to understand the metabolic flows of our cities — where goods that support it come from and where outputs like solid waste and air and water pollutants end up — and take responsibility for the results.

He frequently cites the concerns of millennials, as well as the power of the internet to bring us together and provide greater transparency about decisions; it may be possible to see for ourselves whether working conditions at a shirt factory are safe and humane or whether or not a forest is being sustainably managed. Equipped with this knowledge, we can make better, more responsible choices as consumers (and as cities, for that matter).

Choosing the greater good

Circling back to Singer's book Animal Liberation — his idea of our ethical duty to reduce the suffering of all sentient life perhaps has considerable implications for something on the minds of many urban planners: how we feed current and future urban populations.

Singer thinks the sharp decline in global fish catches and collapse of many fisheries worldwide suggest the need to explore other sources of protein for a growing population. He also says that both the harvesting of wild-caught fish and the use of aquaculture to raise large predator fish species like salmon involve tremendous suffering.

By Singer's estimate, the annual global fish kill exceeds a trillion. "It is an enormous number of sentient beings being killed. ... I think it is time that people become aware of the slaughter, of the suffering involved," as well as the unsustainable and damaging nature of modern fishing methods, he says. This is a lot to consider and an issue not many of us think of when ordering salmon or grouper for dinner.

By contrast, filter-feeding species such as mussels and oysters can be cultivated without suffering (Singer believes the sentience line is somewhere between an oyster and a lobster or a shrimp), and their production and harvesting do not entail as much environmental damage. Indeed, they are actually ecologically restorative in that they can filter and clean water.

Cities will not be able to avoid these ethical dimensions, considering the many ways they facilitate, subsidize, or regulate food production, as well as how they influence individual food choices. Some cities, like my hometown of Alexandria, Virginia, have even created a "city ethicist." I like the idea of cities either having a professional ethicist on staff or utilizing the services of an ethicist to help them work through the sticky trade-offs they will inevitably face. Though the idea is not likely to gain much traction and naysayers will object to the cost, I think it would be money well spent.

In the meantime, planners may, in their roles as stewards of the environment and advocates for a larger public interest, be the next nearest thing. And in these ways, planning — especially environmental planning — may be a terrific and potentially potent expression of, and force on behalf of, effective altruism.

Timothy Beatley is the Teresa Heinz Professor of Sustainable Communities at the University of Virginia, where he directs the Biophilic Cities Project.