How much of my time should I spend helping others? Let me first say that I am a pretty happy person in general and I enjoy my life. However, although I volunteer a considerable amount (15-20 hrs. a week), I always feel like I should and/or could be doing more. I am a college student (majoring in philosophy) who lives a considerably comfortable lifestyle (I have a home, food, etc.), and I can't help but feel guilty for taking any pleasure in frivolous activities (video games, socializing, etc.) while I know how many people on earth live extremely hard lives. At the same time, it seems necessary to spend time not helping others and merely enjoying myself. What percentage of our time/effort/money should we spend making others' lives better? Would it be morally mertitorious to devote one's self entirely to others at the expense of ourselves or conversely, would it be alright to not volunteer at all and focus soley one's self? I can't seem to find a happy medium. p.s. This is a great service...keep it up.

How best to spend one's time is a question that every adult grapples with. It has many dimensions, including an ethical one. Though the three most popular approaches in philosophical ethics -- utilitarianism, Kantianism, and virtue ethics -- have something to say about the question, none provides a decisive answer. And that's as it should be: we should be suspicious of any philosophical position that fails to acknowledge the complexity of an issue as central to human existence as the one you raise. Utilitarians argue that we should try to maximize happiness for the greatest number of people. When you think about it, this is in general a pretty tall order. There's no theoretical built-in limit on how much time we should spend trying to make the most people the happiest. Some utilitarians -- the contemporary philosopher Peter Singer comes to mind -- argue that this is the way it should be, that living the best sort of life may well involve forgoing a lot of personal pleasure. Others -- I...