Prof Luc Bovens and Mr Stephan Chambers

Professor Bovens will deliver the weekly lectures and the seminars based on lecture material; Stephan Chambers, Marshall Institute Director, will arrange and chair the bi-weekly discussion with leaders in philanthropy.

This course is available on the BSc in Philosophy and Economics, BSc in Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method, BSc in Philosophy, Politics and Economics and BSc in Politics and Philosophy. This course is available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit and to General Course students.

This is 3rd-year level course, open to students from any degree in LSE. Interested second-year students can apply to the lecturer for permission to take the course. 

The course will address key questions in philosophy and social science concerning philanthropy, including:

• Which motives actually drive philanthropy and which motives should drive it?

• What is the nature and extent of our moral obligations to philanthropy?

• Is the proper aim of philanthropy to ‘do the most good’?

• How should the good aimed at be conceived of and measured?

• How, if at all, should people’s rights and the risks of causing harm constrain the pursuit of the good?

• What are a charitable organisation’s duties of accountability towards its stakeholders, that is, the donors, the recipients and its employees?

• Do we need Randomised Controlled Trials as evidence for the efficacy of philanthropic interventions?

• Which career and personal choices should one make in order to further philanthropic aims?

• Which moral principles govern the relationship between the state and private philanthropy? Between corporations and charities?

• What is the role of foundations in support for the arts?

• How should the recipients of aid be represented in media campaigns of charities addressing global poverty?

• What behavioural techniques can be invoked to increase charitable giving and are these techniques respectful of the freedom and autonomy of the targeted donors?

Learning aims:

• Students will learn about key contemporary debates in the ethics of philanthropy through critical engagement with the philosophical literature.

• Students will learn how to use both social science and normative (ethical and methodological) reasoning to assess philanthropic organisations.

• Students will gain knowledge of philanthropy in action via case studies that highlight key methodological and ethical issues and via discussions with professionals with extensive experience of the sector in bi-weekly, supplementary talks and Q&A sessions.

10 hours of lectures, 5 hours of seminars and 10 hours of classes in the MT.

In Michaelmas term: 1 hour lecture per week (x 10), fortnightly 1 hour additional ‘philanthropy in practice’ guest lecture and seminar with leading figures in philanthropy organised by the Marshall Institute; seminars: 1 hour per week (maximum of 15 per seminar). 

Students will be expected to produce 1 essay in the MT.

This formative essay has a word limit of 1500 words. 

Essential Readings:

Peter Singer The Life You Can Save, Random House (2009)

Jennifer Rubenstein Between Samaritans and States: The Political Ethics of Humanitarian INGOs. Oxford: OUP. (2015)

The GiveWell website. URL: http://www.givewell.org.

Rob Reich, Chiara Cordelli and Lucy Bernholz, Philanthropy in Democratic Societies. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (2016)

Dale Russakoff, The Prize -- Who's in Charge of America's Schools? Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. (2015)

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, “The Danger of a Single Story.” TEDGlobal 2009. https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story

Applying behavioural insights to charitable giving. Cabinet Office and Behavioural Insights, 28 May 2013. URL: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/applying-behavioural-insights-to-charitable-giving

Reading List:

Peter Singer et al. "The Logic of Effective Altruism: Opening the Debate" The Boston Review 6 July 2015.

Frances Kamm “Does Distance Matter Morally to the Duty to Rescue?” Law and Philosophy, 19, 655–681. (2000)

William MacAskill Doing Good Better. How Effective Altruism Can Help You Help Others, Do Work that Matters, and Make Smarter Choice about Giving Back. London: Guardian Books. (2015)

William MacAskill  “Replaceability, Career Choice and Making a Difference.” Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 17(2), 269-83 (2014)

Susan Wolf, “Morality and the View from Nowhere.” In: The variety of values: essays on morality, meaning, and love. New York: Oxford University Press (2014)

Susan Wolf “Good-for-Nothings” In: The variety of values: essays on morality, meaning, and love. New York: Oxford University Press (2014)

Amia Srinivasan, Better Ways to Help.  Review of MacAskill's Doing Good Better and Singer's The Most Good You Can Do. In: Times Literary Supplement, November 18, 2015.

Martha Nussbaum, “If Oxfam Ran the World.  Book Review of Living High and Letting Die: Our Illusion of Innocence by Peter Unger.” In: London Review of Books. Vol. 19 No. 17 • 4 September 1997. pp 18-19. (1997) 

Theron Pummer “Whether and Where to Give” Philosophy and Public Affairs, First published: 22 August 2016.

Jennifer Rubenstein Between Samaritans and States: The Political Ethics of Humanitarian INGOs. Oxford: OUP. (2015)

Chiara Lepora, Chiara and Robert E Goodin, On Complicity and Compromise. Oxford: OUP. (2013)

The GiveWell website. URL: http://www.givewell.org.

Dan W. Brock and Daniel Wikler, “Ethical Issues in Resource Allocation, Research, and New Product Development.” In: Disease Control Priorities in Developing Countries, 2nd edition. Edited by Dean T Jamison et al.  OUP, 259-70. (2016)

Toby Ord, The Moral Imperative toward Cost-Effectiveness. URL: https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/sites/givingwhatwecan.org/files/attachments/moral_imperative.pdf

Esther Duflo, Social Experiments to Fight Poverty. TED talk. (2010) URL: https://moodle.lse.ac.uk/mod/url/view.php?id=595560

Angus Deaton and Nancy Cartwright, Understanding and Misunderstanding Randomized Controlled Trials. (2016) URL: https://www.dur.ac.uk/resources/chess/CHESSK4UWP_2016_05_DeatonCartwright.pdf

Rob Reich, Chiara Cordelli and Lucy Bernholz, Philanthropy in Democratic Societies. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (2016)

Dale Russakoff, The Prize -- Who's in Charge of America's Schools? Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. (2015)

Gara Lamarche, “Is Philanthropy Bad for Democracy?” The Atlantic, 30 October 2014

URL: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/10/is-philanthropy-good-for-democracy/381996/

Rob Reich, “What are Foundations for?” Boston Review, 1 March 2013. URL: http://bostonreview.net/forum/foundations-philanthropy-democracy

Binyavanga Wainaina, “How to Write about Africa.” Granta 92: The View from Africa. 19 January 2006. URL: https://granta.com/how-to-write-about-africa/

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, “The Danger of a Single Story.” TEDGlobal 2009. https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story

“Applying behavioural insights to charitable giving.” Cabinet Office and Behavioural Insights, 28 May 2013. URL: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/applying-behavioural-insights-to-charitable-giving

Exam (65%, duration: 2 hours) in the summer exam period.
Essay (25%, 1500 words) in the ST.
In class assessment (10%) in the MT.