" Perhaps it is not love that motivates effective altruists but empathy, the ability to put oneself in the position of others and identify with their feelings or emotions. Writers like de Waal and Jeremy Rifkin have seized on the idea of empathy as, to use de Waal’s words, “the grand theme of our time.”4 Rifkin believes that civilization has spread the reach of empathy beyond the family and the community so that it covers all of humankind. "

― Peter Singer , The Most Good You Can Do: How Effective Altruism Is Changing Ideas About Living Ethically