Peter Singer’s books and ideas have been disturbing our complacency ever since the appearance of Animal Liberation. Now he directs our attention to a new movement in which his own ideas have played a crucial role: effective altruism. Effective altruism is built upon the simple but profound idea that living a fully ethical life involves doing the "most good you can do." Such a life requires an unsentimental view of charitable giving: to be a worthy recipient of our support, an organization must be able to demonstrate that it will do more good with our money or our time than other options open to us. Singer introduces us to an array of remarkable people who are restructuring their lives in accordance with these ideas, and shows how living altruistically often leads to greater personal fulfillment than living for oneself.

The Most Good You Can Do develops the challenges Singer has made, in the New York Times and Washington Post, to those who donate to the arts, and to charities focused on helping our fellow citizens, rather than those for whom we can do the most good. Effective altruists are extending our knowledge of the possibilities of living less selfishly, and of allowing reason, rather than emotion, to determine how we live. The Most Good You Can Do offers new hope for our ability to tackle the world’s most pressing problems.

彼得•辛格（Peter Singer），美国普林斯顿大学生物伦理学教授、澳大利亚墨尔本大学应用哲学与公共伦理中心荣誉教授，专事应用伦理学的研究。出版有《动物解放》（Animal Liberation），该书被认为是现代动物解放运动的宣言。另一本影响力较大的著作是《你能拯救的生命》（The Life You Can Save），他还成立了与书同名的慈善机构。其他的作品包括《实践伦理学》（Practical Ethics）、《行最大的善》（The Most Good You Can Do）以及《功利主义：导论》（Utilitarianism: A Very Short Introduction）。2005年，入选《时代》周刊“全世界100位最有影响力人物”