First published 19 December 2021. Last updated 17 March 2022. What're You Reading? with Kyle Johnson, on Nietzsche https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/evan-sandhoefner-reads-nietzsche/id1602254837?i=1000553930023 Both/And with Jared Janes and Jason Snyder, on Reducing Suffering https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/29-reducing-suffering-with-evan-sandhoefner/id1451020286?i=1000462652753 Books & Booze with John Leven, on Famine, Affluence, and Morality https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-17-famine-affluence-and-morality/id1257563945?i=1000431189890

First published 26 January 2019. Last updated 26 January 2019. I don't know if I'm allowed to do this, but I'm just posting the full text of this article by Arthur Koestler, because it's not easy to find without an NYT subscription. NYT published this as "The Nightmare That Is a Reality" on 9 January … Continue reading “On Disbelieving Atrocities” →

First published 10 January 2019. Last updated 22 February 2019. You can see what I'm listening to here, or what I've recorded below. Contents Piano Ukulele Violin Voice Guitar Piano [back to top] https://www.instagram.com/p/BY9pSwGHrP9/ Ukulele [back to top] https://www.instagram.com/p/BuFdktjHOS6/ https://www.instagram.com/p/BuK9ctOn7nJ/ https://www.instagram.com/p/BtExAeLnbPd/ Violin [back to top] https://www.instagram.com/p/BsyfUUTH9jc/ Voice [back to top] https://www.instagram.com/p/Bo-bp65Dw-q/ Guitar [back to top] … Continue reading Music →

First published 26 October 2017. Last updated 26 October 2017. This post addresses a few common arguments against utilitarianism: the utility monster, the experience machine, and the repugnant conclusion (a.k.a the mere addition paradox). The Utility Monster The utility monster is a thought experiment intended to defeat classical utilitarianism. Read about it here. Basically, it goes like … Continue reading In Defense of Utilitarianism →

First published 18 October 2017. Last updated 19 October 2017. Introduction One important philosophical debate in effective altruism, which doesn’t get as much attention as it should, is the divide between negative and non-negative utilitarianism. Brian Tomasik has outlined 3 different versions of negative utilitarianism, which can be arrived at by responding in certain ways to a … Continue reading Why I’m Not a Negative Utilitarian →

First published 15 September 2017. Last updated 15 September 2017. I once went to a restaurant to catch up with an old friend, who didn't know that I'd become vegan since we last talked. The subject came up when I ordered my food, and he asked me why I did it. I said it was … Continue reading The Bad Guy Spectrum →

First published 25 August 2017. Last updated 11 June 2018. This post is part of the "I Used to Believe" series, introduced here. Contents My History With the Topic Analysis Appendix: Thoughts on Voting My History With the Topic I can't recall ever being against vegetarianism. For that matter, I can't recall thinking about vegetarianism … Continue reading I Used to Believe: Individual Vegetarians Didn’t Make (Much of) a Difference →

First published 25 August 2017. Last updated 10 September 2017. This is an introduction to a series of posts which I'll write on an ongoing basis. The theme is to explore ideas I used to hold - why I held them, why I let them go, what I learned about myself or the world along … Continue reading Introducing “I Used to Believe” (A Series) →

First published 11 August 2017. Last updated 11 August 2017. A common last-ditch argument against veganism (or vegetarianism, or lacto-vegetarianism, or reducetarianism) goes as follows: The "I'm a utility monster" argument. "I'm a highly intelligent and emotionally sophisticated human, so my interests genuinely matter vastly more than those of lower animals, and eating animal products gives me … Continue reading How Good Is Bacon, Exactly? [Data] →

First published 5 July 2017. Last updated 7 September 2017. This post clarifies some of my most important philosophical beliefs, which I take for granted in much of my other writing. I am a consequentialist and a utilitarian. I've written about my flavor of utilitarianism here. In brief, that flavor is {hedonic, non-negative, total, act} … Continue reading Read This First – My Beliefs →