“Also, many of the people I imagine you’re talking about not only have a great deal of moral uncertainty, they’re actually leaders in the field of moral uncertainty. That both means that it’s incorrect to ascribe ‘narrow consequentialism’ to them, and that the description of being arrogant and dogmatic is less true of them than most other ethicists. The view many of the people around at the start of the GWWC would probably be most accurately described as something like ‘welfarist with constraints’.”
I’m not sure you are actually talking about the same groups of people. I read that section as focusing on the LW/Rationalist segment of EA, rather than the Oxford Philosophy contingent. Unsurprisingly, the people who have studied philosophy are indeed closer to the combined views of most philosophers.
“Also, many of the people I imagine you’re talking about not only have a great deal of moral uncertainty, they’re actually leaders in the field of moral uncertainty. That both means that it’s incorrect to ascribe ‘narrow consequentialism’ to them, and that the description of being arrogant and dogmatic is less true of them than most other ethicists. The view many of the people around at the start of the GWWC would probably be most accurately described as something like ‘welfarist with constraints’.”
I’m not sure you are actually talking about the same groups of people. I read that section as focusing on the LW/Rationalist segment of EA, rather than the Oxford Philosophy contingent. Unsurprisingly, the people who have studied philosophy are indeed closer to the combined views of most philosophers.
But the LW segment believe that value is fragile and that the ends don’t justify the means!
Ah, that makes sense. Thanks!