A third sort of non-consequentialist position is that we should not act wrongly in certain ways even if the results of doing so appear positive in a purely consequentialist calculus. On this position we should not treat our ends as justifying absolutely any means. Examples of prohibited means could be any of the adjectives or nouns commonly associated with wrongdoing: dishonesty, unfairness, cruelty, theft, et cetera. This view has strong intuitive force. And even if we don’t straightforwardly accept it, it’s hard not to think that a sensitivity to the badness of some of these actions is a good thing, as is a rule of thumb prohibiting them—something that many consequentialists accept.
It would be naive to suppose that effective altruists are immune to acting in these wrong ways—after all, they’re not always motivated by being unusually nice or moral people. Indeed, effective altruism makes some people more likely to act like this by providing ready-made rationalisations which treat them as working towards overwhelming important ends, and indeed as vastly important figures whose productivity must be bolstered at all costs. I’ve seen prominent EAs use these justifications for actions that would shock people in more normal circles. [...] And there are also attitudes that are sufficiently common to not be personally identifiable, such as that one’s life as an important EA is worth that of at least 20 “normal” people.
I believe there should be an essay targeted at the issue above. It should be posed as a problem, or a question, which we will make an effort to solve. The question is:
What, if any, circumstances allow us to make special exceptions for ourselves to act in ways we and others would usually prohibit?
The question isn’t “is consequentialism true?”, nor “is effective altruism the same thing as consequentialism?” Those are questions which have already been examined, not the least by the rest of Tom’s essay. I want this essay for the sake of posterity, something we can point to as a common-sense guide to whether such an action is acceptable, and why not. So, it might be more about personal behavior, psychology, and practicality than philosophy. I really want help writing this. I think it needs to be written sometime, but I can’t do it alone. Please offer your help in comment replies, or a PM.
Obviously, we must be sensitive in covering the topic, especially in which examples are chosen. Some examples will present edge cases, problems where even the greatest moral philosophers in the world will be hard-pressed to conclusively solve. Some may not seem like edge cases to us in particular, but they may to others. Some examples, even single words used for reference, could be philosophical landmines. It would like to avoid such examples as best we can.
I believe good examples are the ones which are the least controversial among everyone, and are failure modes of consequentialist rationalizing in obviously hazardous ways. I read an article about how one anonymous woman in the United States was making money by writing essays for students at American universities with poor English skills. She was making enough money that I speculated, as an adept student of English, it was worth it for me to take up a career of plagiarism to earn to give. I was dumb. Jack LaSota commented I shouldn’t consider it because if I was found out such actions would tarnish effective altruism by association. Months later, in another conversation, someone asked if funneling money into secret Swiss bank accounts to avoid paying taxes so the money could instead be donated to effective charities would be a good idea. Everyone responded ‘uh, no’, but I gave a lengthy and well-received response as to why it was a bad idea.
Justifying crime and fraud are great, uncontroversial examples of things WE TOTALLY SHOULDN’T DO. I think building from like examples is a good starting point, and we can extrapolate to general rationale behind not doing them to get the thesis across.
Yeah, I think you’re right that we need to have some common-sense guidelines, or ‘injunctions’ or ‘deontology’ or ‘virtue ethics’. And it’s not great to act on a view that EAs are extra valuable. But what should we do about it? Why do people come to this position? What mistakes are they making?
Or maybe the issue can be extended other ways, and then it would be a nice juicy big post topic!
Tom Ash wrote a piece a month ago called Effective Altruism and Consequentialism. In it, he covers a particular issue.
It would be naive to suppose that effective altruists are immune to acting in these wrong ways—after all, they’re not always motivated by being unusually nice or moral people. Indeed, effective altruism makes some people more likely to act like this by providing ready-made rationalisations which treat them as working towards overwhelming important ends, and indeed as vastly important figures whose productivity must be bolstered at all costs. I’ve seen prominent EAs use these justifications for actions that would shock people in more normal circles. [...] And there are also attitudes that are sufficiently common to not be personally identifiable, such as that one’s life as an important EA is worth that of at least 20 “normal” people.
I believe there should be an essay targeted at the issue above. It should be posed as a problem, or a question, which we will make an effort to solve. The question is:
The question isn’t “is consequentialism true?”, nor “is effective altruism the same thing as consequentialism?” Those are questions which have already been examined, not the least by the rest of Tom’s essay. I want this essay for the sake of posterity, something we can point to as a common-sense guide to whether such an action is acceptable, and why not. So, it might be more about personal behavior, psychology, and practicality than philosophy. I really want help writing this. I think it needs to be written sometime, but I can’t do it alone. Please offer your help in comment replies, or a PM.
I assume you’ve read this series of posts?
Obviously, we must be sensitive in covering the topic, especially in which examples are chosen. Some examples will present edge cases, problems where even the greatest moral philosophers in the world will be hard-pressed to conclusively solve. Some may not seem like edge cases to us in particular, but they may to others. Some examples, even single words used for reference, could be philosophical landmines. It would like to avoid such examples as best we can.
I believe good examples are the ones which are the least controversial among everyone, and are failure modes of consequentialist rationalizing in obviously hazardous ways. I read an article about how one anonymous woman in the United States was making money by writing essays for students at American universities with poor English skills. She was making enough money that I speculated, as an adept student of English, it was worth it for me to take up a career of plagiarism to earn to give. I was dumb. Jack LaSota commented I shouldn’t consider it because if I was found out such actions would tarnish effective altruism by association. Months later, in another conversation, someone asked if funneling money into secret Swiss bank accounts to avoid paying taxes so the money could instead be donated to effective charities would be a good idea. Everyone responded ‘uh, no’, but I gave a lengthy and well-received response as to why it was a bad idea.
Justifying crime and fraud are great, uncontroversial examples of things WE TOTALLY SHOULDN’T DO. I think building from like examples is a good starting point, and we can extrapolate to general rationale behind not doing them to get the thesis across.
The bystander effect! Maybe you should ask someone specific who you know!
Yeah, I think you’re right that we need to have some common-sense guidelines, or ‘injunctions’ or ‘deontology’ or ‘virtue ethics’. And it’s not great to act on a view that EAs are extra valuable. But what should we do about it? Why do people come to this position? What mistakes are they making?
Or maybe the issue can be extended other ways, and then it would be a nice juicy big post topic!