Fair with respect nihilism in particular. I can see both the cases for and against that charge against the procreation asymmetry, EDIT although the word has fairly negative connotations, so I still think it’s better to not use it in this context.
With respect to fairness, I think the way the website is used and marketed, i.e., as an introductory textbook to be shared more widely with audiences not yet very familiar with the area, it’ll mislead readers new to the area or who otherwise don’t take the time to read it more carefully and critically. It’s even referenced in the EA Forum tag/wiki for Utilitarianism, alone with a podcast* in the section External links (although there are other references in Further reading), and described there as a textbook, too. I’m guessing EA groups will sometimes share it with their members. It might be used in actual courses, as it seems intended. If I were to include it in EA materials or university courses, I’d also include exercises asking readers to spot where parallel arguments could have been used but weren’t and try to come up with them, as well as about other issues, and have them read opposing pieces. We shouldn’t normally have to do this for something described as or intended to be treated as a textbook.
Within an actual university philosophy class, maybe this is all fine, since other materials and critical reading will normally be expected (or, I’d hope so). But that still leaves promotion within EA, where this might not happen. The page tries to steer the audience towards the total view and longtermism, so it could shape our community while misleading uncritical readers through unfairly treating other views. To be clear, though, I don’t know how and how much it is being or will be promoted within the community. Maybe these concerns are overblown.
On the other hand, academics are trained to see through these issues, and papers are read primarily by smaller and more critical audiences, so the risks of misleading are lower. So it seems reasonable to me to hold it to a higher standard than an academic paper.
* Bold part edited in after. I missed the podcast when I first looked. EDIT: I’ve also just added https://www.utilitarianism.com and some other standard references to that page.
I’m of two minds on this. On the one hand you’re right that a textbook style should be more referential and less polemical as a rule. On the other hand, as you also point out, pretty much every philosophy class I’ve ever taken is made entirely of primary source readings. In the rare cases where something more referential is assigned instead, generally it’s just something like a Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry. I’m not certain how all introductory EA fellowships are run, but the one I facilitated was also mostly primary, semi-polemical sources, defending a particular perspective, followed by discussion, much like a philosophy class. Maybe utilitarianism.net is aiming more for being a textbook on utilitarianism, but it seems to me like it is more of a set of standard arguments for the classical utilitarian perspective, with a pretty clear bias in favor of it. That also seems more consistent with what Chappell has been saying, though of course it’s possible that its framing doesn’t reflect this sufficiently as well. Like you though, I’m not super familiar with how this resource is generally used, I just don’t know that I would think of it first and foremost as a sort of neutral secondary reference. That just doesn’t seem like its purpose.
Fair with respect nihilism in particular. I can see both the cases for and against that charge against the procreation asymmetry, EDIT although the word has fairly negative connotations, so I still think it’s better to not use it in this context.
With respect to fairness, I think the way the website is used and marketed, i.e., as an introductory textbook to be shared more widely with audiences not yet very familiar with the area, it’ll mislead readers new to the area or who otherwise don’t take the time to read it more carefully and critically. It’s even referenced in the EA Forum tag/wiki for Utilitarianism, alone with a podcast* in the section External links (although there are other references in Further reading), and described there as a textbook, too. I’m guessing EA groups will sometimes share it with their members. It might be used in actual courses, as it seems intended. If I were to include it in EA materials or university courses, I’d also include exercises asking readers to spot where parallel arguments could have been used but weren’t and try to come up with them, as well as about other issues, and have them read opposing pieces. We shouldn’t normally have to do this for something described as or intended to be treated as a textbook.
Within an actual university philosophy class, maybe this is all fine, since other materials and critical reading will normally be expected (or, I’d hope so). But that still leaves promotion within EA, where this might not happen. The page tries to steer the audience towards the total view and longtermism, so it could shape our community while misleading uncritical readers through unfairly treating other views. To be clear, though, I don’t know how and how much it is being or will be promoted within the community. Maybe these concerns are overblown.
On the other hand, academics are trained to see through these issues, and papers are read primarily by smaller and more critical audiences, so the risks of misleading are lower. So it seems reasonable to me to hold it to a higher standard than an academic paper.
* Bold part edited in after. I missed the podcast when I first looked. EDIT: I’ve also just added https://www.utilitarianism.com and some other standard references to that page.
I’m of two minds on this. On the one hand you’re right that a textbook style should be more referential and less polemical as a rule. On the other hand, as you also point out, pretty much every philosophy class I’ve ever taken is made entirely of primary source readings. In the rare cases where something more referential is assigned instead, generally it’s just something like a Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry. I’m not certain how all introductory EA fellowships are run, but the one I facilitated was also mostly primary, semi-polemical sources, defending a particular perspective, followed by discussion, much like a philosophy class. Maybe utilitarianism.net is aiming more for being a textbook on utilitarianism, but it seems to me like it is more of a set of standard arguments for the classical utilitarian perspective, with a pretty clear bias in favor of it. That also seems more consistent with what Chappell has been saying, though of course it’s possible that its framing doesn’t reflect this sufficiently as well. Like you though, I’m not super familiar with how this resource is generally used, I just don’t know that I would think of it first and foremost as a sort of neutral secondary reference. That just doesn’t seem like its purpose.