I originally posted this on the Facebook thread that linked to this discussion, but that thread was deleted, so I’m reposting it here.
The strongest counterargument against EA that I know of is an attack on its underlying methodological individualism. By “individualism” here I mean analysing our actions as those of individuals deciding and acting in isolation. That is, looking at what we ought to do regardless of how this correlates with the behaviour of others.
To see why this could be a problem, take Downs paradox of voting, as illustrated here. In that video, Diana Thomas argues—persuasively in my view—that voting (and being an informed voter) is irrational if seen solely as an individual act. Some have attempted to counter this by saying that voters are acting altruistically, rather than egoistically. I think such explanations are insufficient because they ignore the irreducibility of voting. The impact of voting for a specific candidate is an emergent property of sufficiently many doing it. Voting only makes sense when seen as a collective, rather than individual, act.
The fundamental question underlying EA is “how can I have the most impact?” Turning this question into a movement, thus changing the “I” into a “we”, doesn’t necessarily mean that the answer stays the same.
I originally posted this on the Facebook thread that linked to this discussion, but that thread was deleted, so I’m reposting it here.
The strongest counterargument against EA that I know of is an attack on its underlying methodological individualism. By “individualism” here I mean analysing our actions as those of individuals deciding and acting in isolation. That is, looking at what we ought to do regardless of how this correlates with the behaviour of others.
To see why this could be a problem, take Downs paradox of voting, as illustrated here. In that video, Diana Thomas argues—persuasively in my view—that voting (and being an informed voter) is irrational if seen solely as an individual act. Some have attempted to counter this by saying that voters are acting altruistically, rather than egoistically. I think such explanations are insufficient because they ignore the irreducibility of voting. The impact of voting for a specific candidate is an emergent property of sufficiently many doing it. Voting only makes sense when seen as a collective, rather than individual, act.
The fundamental question underlying EA is “how can I have the most impact?” Turning this question into a movement, thus changing the “I” into a “we”, doesn’t necessarily mean that the answer stays the same.