Coda

Abstract

Abstract The Coda offers a critique of longtermism, a particular application of Effective Altruism (EA). Concern for future generations is not new within ethics and social thought, but longtermism rehearses EA’s familiar “utilitarianesque” moves, now with regard to future generations, in ways that replicate EA’s current threats to crucial social justice work, bringing the threats into the future. Longtermism is perhaps at its most objectionable with regard to nonhuman animals. By developing core themes of EA in reference to the future, longtermism brings out yet more luridly the moral bankruptcy of a tradition that, with its deceptive talk of doing the “most good,” silences marginalized voices.