I was very unclear about what justifies that claim, pardon:
Ramsey deriving the form of the intertemporal decision and then setting δ=0 seems much clearer than Pigou (or Sidgwick, who waved in the direction of the position much earlier than either).
Ah, right. Yes, regardless of what we call him, this is undoubtedly a significant milestone in the historical development of longtermism. (I’m not personally comfortable with calling Ramsey or anyone else the “first” [qualification] longtermist because I think longtermism involves multiple claims, not just an endorsement of a zero discount rate, although that claim is clearly a central one.)
I’d love to see more posts exploring early longtermist or proto-longtermist thinking!
I was very unclear about what justifies that claim, pardon:
Ramsey deriving the form of the intertemporal decision and then setting δ=0 seems much clearer than Pigou (or Sidgwick, who waved in the direction of the position much earlier than either).
“First quantitative longtermist”? “First strong longtermist”?
Ah, right. Yes, regardless of what we call him, this is undoubtedly a significant milestone in the historical development of longtermism. (I’m not personally comfortable with calling Ramsey or anyone else the “first” [qualification] longtermist because I think longtermism involves multiple claims, not just an endorsement of a zero discount rate, although that claim is clearly a central one.)
I’d love to see more posts exploring early longtermist or proto-longtermist thinking!