I get this on a personal level, even if I don’t entirely agree.
Ideally I’d be involved in all five, but I live pretty far from EA hubs (so not much chance to form relationships). My career is related to EA’s mission but as a small contractor it’s hard to choose effective charities (even though I would ideally love to focus on getting animal welfare initiatives funded), and I’m not sure a career change at this point in my life is practical for me.
So do I count as actually EA? In my own mind, probably not, although I definitely want to be—I just don’t think I do enough to count. This is probably just imposter syndrome on my part, though.
The one thing that I think is essential* to EA is the philosophy. Everything else (the social and professional communities, the effective methods, the moral obligation, etc.) flows from universalist utilitarianism, usually of the hedonic / suffering minimization kind (although the specific forms can differ slightly). If that’s not there, and if you’re coming from a totally different philosophical perspective (e.g., virtue ethics, some form of deontology not rooted in observable reality, etc.), to me it’s hard to call this EA. It seems like a house with no foundation. This was the main reason I didn’t join EA back in college, because I wasn’t ready to accept utilitarianism.
I don’t know. Maybe I’m too idealistic?
*in the sense of “if this isn’t there, you’re no longer doing EA”
I get this on a personal level, even if I don’t entirely agree.
Ideally I’d be involved in all five, but I live pretty far from EA hubs (so not much chance to form relationships). My career is related to EA’s mission but as a small contractor it’s hard to choose effective charities (even though I would ideally love to focus on getting animal welfare initiatives funded), and I’m not sure a career change at this point in my life is practical for me.
So do I count as actually EA? In my own mind, probably not, although I definitely want to be—I just don’t think I do enough to count. This is probably just imposter syndrome on my part, though.
The one thing that I think is essential* to EA is the philosophy. Everything else (the social and professional communities, the effective methods, the moral obligation, etc.) flows from universalist utilitarianism, usually of the hedonic / suffering minimization kind (although the specific forms can differ slightly). If that’s not there, and if you’re coming from a totally different philosophical perspective (e.g., virtue ethics, some form of deontology not rooted in observable reality, etc.), to me it’s hard to call this EA. It seems like a house with no foundation. This was the main reason I didn’t join EA back in college, because I wasn’t ready to accept utilitarianism.
I don’t know. Maybe I’m too idealistic?
*in the sense of “if this isn’t there, you’re no longer doing EA”