Making a Difference: Ethics and Career Choice

This paper will argue that the role of career choice in an ethical life is to focus on neglected causes and areas of thought. In order to carefully consider our effects on the world, we need to be conscious of how our actions affect the world. Derek Parfit’s work in Reasons and Persons outlines several ways that we can consider our impact on the world. I then move to Julia Galef’s distinction between Planners and Hayekians. We need to incorporate our uncertainty about the world into how we affect the world, and Galef’s distinction creates a more developed description of how we can improve the world. I then argue that improving the world goes beyond our individual actions, and that making a difference involves our marginal impact on the world. Finally, I argue that we can increase our marginal impact on the world by pursuing careers that address neglected causes. Throughout the paper I will also briefly address Earning to Give, Effective Altruism, and the role of career choice relative to the other ways that we can change the world.