I’m pleased to be able to share Understanding cause-neutrality, a new working paper produced by the research team at the Centre for Effective Altruism. (PDF version.)
Executive summary
The term “cause-neutrality” has been used for at least four concepts. The first aim of this article is to define those concepts.
Cause-impartiality means to select causes based on impartial estimates of impact. This is the concept most frequently associated with the term “cause-neutrality”. Cause-impartiality can either be seen as entailing moralimpartiality, or as pure means-impartiality: choosing the means (e.g., charity evaluation, policy work) to reach one’s moral ends impartially.
Cause-agnosticism means uncertainty about how investments (direct work, donations) in different causes compare in terms of impact.
Cause-general investments have a wide scope. They yield capacity which can affect any cause. Cause-general capacity fall into two categories. Cause-flexible capacity (e.g., money) can be flexibly re-allocated across causes. Broad impact capacity (e.g., good epistemics) affect multiple causes without having to be re-directed.
Cause-divergent investments are cause-specific investments in multiple causes (e.g., global poverty, existential risk).
Figure 1: Decision process for altruistic investments (the four concepts’ antonyms in black).
My second aim is to give a survey of considerations on the value of cause-impartiality, cause-agnosticism, cause-generality, and cause-divergence. In these sections, I among other things discuss the relations between the four concepts.
Though cause-impartiality is sometimes mixed up with the other three concepts, it does not entail any of them. Cause-agnosticism can be a reason for cause-divergent and cause-general investments. Cause-divergent and cause-flexible investments can substitute for each other, whereas cause-divergent and broad impact investments can complement each other. Recruiting cause-impartial individuals amounts to a cause-flexible investment.
Understanding cause-neutrality
I’m pleased to be able to share Understanding cause-neutrality, a new working paper produced by the research team at the Centre for Effective Altruism. (PDF version.)
Executive summary
The term “cause-neutrality” has been used for at least four concepts. The first aim of this article is to define those concepts.
Cause-impartiality means to select causes based on impartial estimates of impact. This is the concept most frequently associated with the term “cause-neutrality”. Cause-impartiality can either be seen as entailing moralimpartiality, or as pure means-impartiality: choosing the means (e.g., charity evaluation, policy work) to reach one’s moral ends impartially.
Cause-agnosticism means uncertainty about how investments (direct work, donations) in different causes compare in terms of impact.
Cause-general investments have a wide scope. They yield capacity which can affect any cause. Cause-general capacity fall into two categories. Cause-flexible capacity (e.g., money) can be flexibly re-allocated across causes. Broad impact capacity (e.g., good epistemics) affect multiple causes without having to be re-directed.
Cause-divergent investments are cause-specific investments in multiple causes (e.g., global poverty, existential risk).
Figure 1: Decision process for altruistic investments (the four concepts’ antonyms in black).
My second aim is to give a survey of considerations on the value of cause-impartiality, cause-agnosticism, cause-generality, and cause-divergence. In these sections, I among other things discuss the relations between the four concepts.
Though cause-impartiality is sometimes mixed up with the other three concepts, it does not entail any of them. Cause-agnosticism can be a reason for cause-divergent and cause-general investments. Cause-divergent and cause-flexible investments can substitute for each other, whereas cause-divergent and broad impact investments can complement each other. Recruiting cause-impartial individuals amounts to a cause-flexible investment.