Toby Ord

Toby David Godfrey Ord (born 18 July 1979) is an Australian philosopher. He is the founder of Giving What We Can, an international society dedicated to the elimination of poverty in the developing world.

Career

Ord attended the University of Melbourne, where he initially studied computer science. On completing his first degree, he switched to studying philosophy to pursue his interest in ethics: "At this stage I knew that I wanted to make a large positive difference in the world and it seemed that studying ethics would help.”

For his graduate studies, Ord moved to the University of Oxford, where he obtained both a B.Phil., and a D.Phil. in philosophy. Having submitted his doctoral thesis, 'Beyond Action: applying consequentialism to decision making and motivation’, Ord was retained as a junior research fellow by Balliol College, Oxford. Alongside his main academic post, Ord also holds positions at Oxford University's Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics and Future of Humanity Institute. He has published widely on ethics and the philosophy of computation. His research interests include questions around global poverty, moral uncertainty and catastrophic risks.