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.
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.