Laura: “For me, one of the off-putting things in my early days (and still now) is how much utilitarianism is part of the culture, but is denied. I think it says something when Toby Ord and Will MacAskill aren’t philosophically committed to that position, but everyone I talk to takes its “obvious truth” for granted. I always found this a little alienating, honestly. And it’s exhausting having to defend my beliefs all the time”
Nathan: “I found some of the anti-politics vibe from the rationalists pretty annoying. But this is pretty minor—my early EA experiences were really good”
The utilitarianism thing is interesting. I find there’s a bit of a difficult balancing act between openly discussing effective altruism as a community, as it currently ‘is’, vs emphasising how it ‘could be’ or ‘aims to be’. The latter options seem much broader.
E.g. if people have enquired about the connection to utilitarianism, I have sometimes commented how in principle it seems possible to me that you ask how to maximise rights observance, or develop the very best/virtuous character traits you can. But of course, there’s relatively little discussion about these topics within the current effective altruism community.
Laura: “For me, one of the off-putting things in my early days (and still now) is how much utilitarianism is part of the culture, but is denied. I think it says something when Toby Ord and Will MacAskill aren’t philosophically committed to that position, but everyone I talk to takes its “obvious truth” for granted. I always found this a little alienating, honestly. And it’s exhausting having to defend my beliefs all the time”
Nathan: “I found some of the anti-politics vibe from the rationalists pretty annoying. But this is pretty minor—my early EA experiences were really good”
Thanks very much!
The utilitarianism thing is interesting. I find there’s a bit of a difficult balancing act between openly discussing effective altruism as a community, as it currently ‘is’, vs emphasising how it ‘could be’ or ‘aims to be’. The latter options seem much broader.
E.g. if people have enquired about the connection to utilitarianism, I have sometimes commented how in principle it seems possible to me that you ask how to maximise rights observance, or develop the very best/virtuous character traits you can. But of course, there’s relatively little discussion about these topics within the current effective altruism community.