Executive summary: The author argues that Leif Wenar’s critique of effective altruism is unconvincing, misrepresents key claims, and promotes a dangerous bias against taking action to help others due to potential risks.
Key points:
Wenar’s article contains bizarre speculation about EA motivations and misrepresents statements by EA leaders.
The article lists random downsides of aid without seriously weighing costs and benefits. High-quality evidence shows the most effective aid does far more good than harm.
Wenar ignores how studies of aid effectiveness already account for potential downsides and imperfect usage of interventions like bednets.
The article promotes a moral framing that discourages people from giving to charity by focusing on risks of action over inaction. The author argues inaction in the face of preventable suffering is far riskier.
Effective altruist charities save millions of lives per year. Speculative second-order harms are not enough to justify inaction given the scale of good being done.
This comment was auto-generated by the EA Forum Team. Feel free to point out issues with this summary by replying to the comment, andcontact us if you have feedback.
Executive summary: The author argues that Leif Wenar’s critique of effective altruism is unconvincing, misrepresents key claims, and promotes a dangerous bias against taking action to help others due to potential risks.
Key points:
Wenar’s article contains bizarre speculation about EA motivations and misrepresents statements by EA leaders.
The article lists random downsides of aid without seriously weighing costs and benefits. High-quality evidence shows the most effective aid does far more good than harm.
Wenar ignores how studies of aid effectiveness already account for potential downsides and imperfect usage of interventions like bednets.
The article promotes a moral framing that discourages people from giving to charity by focusing on risks of action over inaction. The author argues inaction in the face of preventable suffering is far riskier.
Effective altruist charities save millions of lives per year. Speculative second-order harms are not enough to justify inaction given the scale of good being done.
This comment was auto-generated by the EA Forum Team. Feel free to point out issues with this summary by replying to the comment, and contact us if you have feedback.