Suffering-Focused Ethics Resources


“Suffering-focused ethics is an umbrella term for moral views that place primary or particular importance on the prevention of suffering.”

— Lukas Gloor & Adriano Mannino, The Case for Suffering-Focused Ethics

“There’s ongoing sickening cruelty: violent child pornography, chickens are boiled alive, and so on. We should help these victims and prevent such suffering, rather than focus on ensuring that many individuals come into existence in the future. When spending resources on increasing the number of beings instead of preventing extreme suffering, one is essentially saying to the victims: ‘I could have helped you, but I didn’t, because I think it’s more important that individuals are brought into existence. Sorry.’”

— Simon Knutsson, The One-Paragraph Case for Suffering-Focused Ethics

1. Websites


Subreddits

Philosophy

Nonhuman Animals

AI/Technology/Future risks

Humans

2. Organisations


3. People


Endorsements

Value aligned

Contemporary

Past

4. Videos


YouTube Channels

Selected Videos

5. Articles/Essays


SFE/Negative Utilitarianism (NU)

Brian Tomasik

Simon Knutsson

David Pearce

Magnus Vinding

Others

Effective Altruism

Consciousness

Speciesism and nonhuman animal welfare

AI/Future risks

6. Books


David Benatar

  • Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming into Existence (2006)
  • Procreation and Parenthood: The Ethics of Bearing and Rearing Children (2010)
  • Debating Procreation: Is It Wrong to Reproduce? (2015)
  • The Human Predicament: A Candid Guide to Life’s Biggest Questions (2017)

Nick Bostrom

  • Human Enhancement (2009)
  • Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies (2014)

J. Howard Moore

David Pearce

Peter Singer

  • Animal Liberation (1975)
  • Practical Ethics (1979)
  • The Life You Can Save (2009)
  • The Most Good You Can Do (2015)

Magnus Vinding

Others

  • Daniel Kolak - I Am You: The Metaphysical Foundations for Global Ethics (2004)
  • Tobias Leenaert - How to Create a Vegan World: A Pragmatic Approach (2017)
  • Jonathan Leighton - The Battle for Compassion: Ethics in an Apathetic Universe (2011)
  • Thomas Ligotti - The Conspiracy Against the Human Race: A Contrivance of Horror (2015)
  • William MacAskill - Doing Good Better (2015)
  • Jamie Mayerfeld - Suffering and Moral Responsibility (1999)
  • Thomas Metzinger - The Ego Tunnel (2009)
  • Derek Parfit - Reasons and Persons (1984)
  • Sarah Perry - Every Cradle is a Grave: Rethinking the Ethics of Birth and Suicide (2014)
  • Karl Popper - The Open Society and Its Enemies (1952)
  • Richard D. Ryder - Painism: A Modern Morality (2001)
  • Benjamin Todd - 80,000 Hours: Find a Fulfilling Career That Does Good (2016)
  • Tatjana Visak - Killing Happy Animals: Explorations in Utilitarian Ethics (2013)

7. Short Fiction


Nick Bostrom

Others