Our mission is to help our members and the wider community use evidence and careful analysis to think about how they can maximize their social impact with their careers and resources.
EA Blue envisions itself to be a welcoming, productive, and robust community of Ateneans who use evidence and reason to figure out how to help others as much as possible, and take action on that basis.
One of effective altruism’s principles is making sure our actions are cost-effective and help as many lives as significantly as possible. Applying the scientific method of having and challenging hypotheses and assumptions allows the collective organization to learn through evidence and reason. We can validate or invalidate our assumptions on what are the important global problems to solve or how to solve them through consulting various sources for evidence.
As important as the scientific method is, the discussion that constantly reframes ideas and practices is also needed. We find that no method is perfect, thus discussion regarding iterations within the organization and of the ideas of the global EA community must be core to what EA Blue Chapter does. We need to be open to change when a compelling enough idea moves us to.
Aligned with humble-living, EA stresses the importance of giving what we can and being humble in our capacity to give back to others. EA does stress some importance of lifestyle moderation and being willing to give money or time to important causes, in order to maintain member values of helping as much as possible whenever possible.
As with all organizations, EA Blue believes forming close-knit, respectful, and genuine relationships is the best way to achieve the common goals set by the organization. The whole point of the organization is the attraction of similarly willing individuals in living a lifestyle within a community that chooses to do good. Member support and member education fall under EA’s most basic foundations in creating and maintaining its global network, one that is greater than the sum of its parts.
Effective Altruism (EA) is a philosophy and global movement of people who use evidence and reason to figure out how to help others as much as possible, and take action on that basis. The EA movement started in 2009 in Oxford, United Kingdom, by a group of people who were driven to do as much good as possible with their lives.
This led them to try figuring out which global problems are most important to solve, which charities to donate to, and which career paths to enter to solve these problems. Moreover, EA chapters were founded in multiple cities and countries around the world, so people could find others interested in doing the most good. Since then, there are now more than 170 EA chapters globally, spread over 40 countries, and an estimated 6,500 “active” people in the EA movement worldwide.
In 2018, three Filipinos from Manila, including one Ateneo graduate, founded Effective Altruism Philippines - the Philippine chapter of the global EA movement. Some Ateneo students then joined the EA Philippines community to attend events, participate in projects, and help organize events. 5 of these students were inspired to found EA Blue in 2019 to discuss the concept of EA with more Ateneans.
Over the school year 2019-2020, EA Blue hosted a few events on various concepts and topics related to Effective Altruism. These included a talk on “How to Have a High-Impact Career” by Brian Tan, co-founder of EA Philippines, and a talk on “Finding Hope through Policy Research” by Kenneth Abante, the Batch 2012 valedictorian of Ateneo.