Please post your ideas for how people can develop their ability to live ethically. Entries here will eventually be posted to a wiki page at felicifia.com, or you can post there directly once the page is ready. Perhaps the page will be called "Pragmatic utilitarianism" or "Practical utilitarianism."

Philosophical texts can be abstract and spend lots of time debating the reasons why we should not lie, cheat, steal, or harm, but ultimately many ethical systems agree on what we should do in daily life. The list here will contain practical tips on what we can do to increase our ability to do what we already know is good, preferable, or right.

Here are a few ideas:
* tips for sticking to a vegan or vegetarian diet (or links to other source that appear to be most helpful)
* tips for cultivating compassion so that we have the mental resources for being nice to others (e.g., metta meditation or something like it)
* tips for communicating effectively so that we do not create hostility and so disputes do not escalate into conflict (e.g., Non Violent Communication by Marshall Rosenberg)
* self-talk that helps us to make a good choice in difficult circumstances

Perhaps this page (or another page?) would list specific acts that might prompt people to positive action. An example from an earlier conversation was donating a kidney. Others would be donating blood, or bone marrow; volunteering (perhaps with specific recommendations);

The page could go off course, so here is my attempt to draft the opening line of the wiki and set some expectations:

This page will contain a list of practical advice for helping people of all backgrounds to stick to core ethical beliefs and commitments. Entries should be brief with links provided to more detailed discussions where needed (add a new wiki page for detailed discussions if needed). The methods described in the list should have universal or nearly universal appeal and should not assume adherence to any particular religion. Note that an entry for "not eating pork" would be relevant but an entry that relies on a specific religious act would not. Part of the intent it to simply mention ideas and initiate a thought process.

I think the most important thing is to find the best charity you can and donate as much as you can.

I assume Rehoot's talking about how to motivate ourselves to do things, rather than which things to motivate ourselves to do.

A couple of thoughts from me, based only on personal experience:

Habit building is more likely to take hold than occasionally willing myself to perform bigger acts. Incorporating things that seem like unique tasks into habits helps.
If I'm performing a task seated, I'm more likely to focus on it if I sit up than if I let myself slouch. Even pushing myself to the back of a seat seems to be more effective than lying against it.
This presumably would work better for men, but I find engaging my more primal challenge seeking habits can be a good way of overcoming temptation - if I'm staring at a cake I want to eat, telling myself I should man up, for eg.

R.e. Giving to most effective charities.
I heard someone say that they put pennies or poker chips into a jar whenever they felt like giving to charity, to make it feel more real, and then donated according to the amount in the jar. Also, possibly those credit cards which donate to your charity whenever you buy something (like a reward card) would help to not make it seem like you aren't spending money. Put money into a donor-advised fund or specific saving account dedicated to charity.

R.e. Trying to become more altruistic.
Get a rescue animal? Get it from a really horrible place so it feels like you're really helping it. Volunteer for looking after kids, makes you feel good and is likely to connect with evolved instincts. Happiness correlates with altruism as I recall, not sure which direction causation runs in, so trying to become happier might result in more altruistic feelings. Split your giving between utilons and fuzzies.

Also Arepo's right, any advice on habit forming would be very useful.

What works for me for donating is just to be really, really thrifty. If you ever want to spend money, just think about how much that money is really worth.

It doesn't help for finding a charity, but as long as you don't spend the money, you just have to find a charity eventually.

I give blood with the intent of making myself willing to do things that make me uncomfortable to help other people. I'm not sure if that really does anything.

rehoot wrote:* tips for sticking to a vegan or vegetarian diet (or links to other source that appear to be most helpful)

Some ideas:

- Read articles and pieces about nutrition. Some people have fear to nutritional deficiencies in a vegan diet. To read about that issue will remove that fear, and it allow to have a better nutrition.

Some bibliography:
http://www.eatright.org/about/content.aspx?id=8357
http://veganhealth.org/
http://www.amazon.com/Vegan-Life-Everyt ... 0738214930

- Replace animal products with vegan products: e.g., milk with soya drink.

- Look for vegan-friendly restaurants: http://www.happycow.net/

- Go to vegan meetups: http://vegan.meetup.com/

- Visit an animal sanctuary. You can know rescued animals, empathizing with them.

rehoot wrote:This page will contain a list of practical advice for helping people of all backgrounds to stick to core ethical beliefs and commitments.

I reckon we should explicitly restrict it to advice about sticking to utilitarian commitments because (i) Some of the advice might not be very general (e.g. how to put up with a high-paying career that you hate, how to be strong when the Big Issue man tells you a convincing sob story) (ii) We want to discourage people from considering applying some of this advice to any harmful ethical beliefs they might have (iii) I'm not sure who's allowed to edit the wiki at the moment so forgive me if this is irrelevant, but it would be better not to have non-utilitarians posting advice that's generally applicable to sticking to ethical beliefs but not very applicable to utilitarianism (iv) It's a wiki about utilitarianism (so we can get away with it).

As for advice itself:
- Other utilitarians - make friends with them online or in person, have utilitarian discussions with them
- Habits - I also echo this advice. A particular example is developing inexpensive tastes.
- Don't be ritualistic - e.g. be a 95% vegan - it makes you significantly more likely to stick to it and has a lower tendency to put other people off
- Find ways to halt the slippery slope - When utilitarianism demands more of you than you're willing to give, find a way to decide how much you will give (e.g. join GWWC - perhaps you thought that you should donate 90% of your income and this motivated you to just ignore the argument all together and not give anything)

A possibly obvious suggestion: Read and write on this forum!

Sometimes I do the following: I expand my self and include all other sentient beings around me into my concept of "I". It feels weird to interpret everyone around you as "I", but it's a rather magnificent experience. It's good for strengthening your "altruism".

Try to keep yourself healthy and your psychical energy/motivation high. Otherwise you will have problems with acting rationally or utilitarian.