It is certainly an important disagreement. There are loads of literatures in political theory that aim to shed light on the way different political problems and practical contexts might properly shape our normative conclusions. Longtermists seem to ignore those debates, which might be fine if their view wasn’t, as I try and show in the paper, deeply political.
Views that take seriously political concepts, constraints and contexts do not indulge in ‘uncritical vibes and bias’. It’s partly effective altruism’s tendency to ignore questions about politics—for example, about power, democracy and the processes which produce social deprivation—that make it a fundamentally conservative movement, as many critics have pointed out.
I’m not sure whether I fully understand what ‘low decoupling’ is, as I came across the idea for the first time in your post and have looked at it only briefly. But yeah, I don’t think it will be a useful concept around which to locate disagreements between longtermists and critics, although that will depend on the specifics. I’m not sure there is a straightforward term that will carve up the field. The safest approach is to engage with the substantive details of particular arguments—that’s what I at least try to do in the paper!
Would you like to suggest a recommended reading that best advances your general perspective here while seriously addressing the charge of uncritical vibes and bias?
From my perspective, it seems like you’re just flatly ignoring my concerns (simply asserting that you “do not indulge in ‘uncritical vibes and bias’” doesn’t allay my concerns, any more than my simply asserting, without further explanation, that impartial moral theorists of my ilk do not ignore questions about power, democracy, etc., would allay yours). One reason I’m inclined to ignore certain academic literatures is that the participants in those literatures seem to take for granted certain misguided foundational assumptions that I take to undermine their entire enterprise. Given my starting perspective, it’s not clear why I should expect to learn anything from reading people who strike me as deeply confused and don’t say anything that addresses my fundamental concerns about their approach.
I would like to see more productive engagement between the two perspectives. But that requires both sides to make some effort to understand and address the other’s concerns.
(I may write more about the substance of your paper at some point, but something that annoyed me a lot when reading it was that you largely seemed to be uncritically laundering the complaints of public critics like Emile Torres, without any apparent understanding of—and engagement with—why longtermists disagree. The suggestion that our approach is “fundamentally conservative” strikes me as particularly groundless, and indicative of unprincipled, vibes-based criticism. But if nothing else, I guess it’s at least helpful to have the criticisms collated in one place, and maybe if I take a stab at addressing them at some point that would be a step towards more mutual engagement. You may also be interested in the final section of my paper, ‘Why Not Effective Altruism?’ where I respond to the “political” critiques of Srinivasan and others.)
It is certainly an important disagreement. There are loads of literatures in political theory that aim to shed light on the way different political problems and practical contexts might properly shape our normative conclusions. Longtermists seem to ignore those debates, which might be fine if their view wasn’t, as I try and show in the paper, deeply political.
Views that take seriously political concepts, constraints and contexts do not indulge in ‘uncritical vibes and bias’. It’s partly effective altruism’s tendency to ignore questions about politics—for example, about power, democracy and the processes which produce social deprivation—that make it a fundamentally conservative movement, as many critics have pointed out.
I’m not sure whether I fully understand what ‘low decoupling’ is, as I came across the idea for the first time in your post and have looked at it only briefly. But yeah, I don’t think it will be a useful concept around which to locate disagreements between longtermists and critics, although that will depend on the specifics. I’m not sure there is a straightforward term that will carve up the field. The safest approach is to engage with the substantive details of particular arguments—that’s what I at least try to do in the paper!
Would you like to suggest a recommended reading that best advances your general perspective here while seriously addressing the charge of uncritical vibes and bias?
From my perspective, it seems like you’re just flatly ignoring my concerns (simply asserting that you “do not indulge in ‘uncritical vibes and bias’” doesn’t allay my concerns, any more than my simply asserting, without further explanation, that impartial moral theorists of my ilk do not ignore questions about power, democracy, etc., would allay yours). One reason I’m inclined to ignore certain academic literatures is that the participants in those literatures seem to take for granted certain misguided foundational assumptions that I take to undermine their entire enterprise. Given my starting perspective, it’s not clear why I should expect to learn anything from reading people who strike me as deeply confused and don’t say anything that addresses my fundamental concerns about their approach.
I would like to see more productive engagement between the two perspectives. But that requires both sides to make some effort to understand and address the other’s concerns.
(I may write more about the substance of your paper at some point, but something that annoyed me a lot when reading it was that you largely seemed to be uncritically laundering the complaints of public critics like Emile Torres, without any apparent understanding of—and engagement with—why longtermists disagree. The suggestion that our approach is “fundamentally conservative” strikes me as particularly groundless, and indicative of unprincipled, vibes-based criticism. But if nothing else, I guess it’s at least helpful to have the criticisms collated in one place, and maybe if I take a stab at addressing them at some point that would be a step towards more mutual engagement. You may also be interested in the final section of my paper, ‘Why Not Effective Altruism?’ where I respond to the “political” critiques of Srinivasan and others.)