“I think there are a lot of problems with the idea of directly pushing for moral circle expansion as a cause area—for starters, moral philosophy might not play a large role in actually driving moral progress. ”
Could you please explain to me why, in your view, this is a “problem” with moral circle expansion as a cause area? Thanks!
I like the idea of expanding people’s moral circle, I’m just not sure what interventions might actually work. The straightforward strategy is “just tell people they should expand their moral circle to include Group X”, but I’m often doubtful that strategy this will win converts and lead to lasting change.
For example, my impression is that things like the rise and decline of slavery were mostly fueled by changing economic fundamentals, rather than by people first deciding that slavery was okay and then later remembering that it was bad. If you wanted to have an effect on people’s moral circles, perhaps better to try and influence those fundamentals than trying to persuade people directly? But others have studied these things in much greater depth: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/o4HX48yMGjCrcRqwC/what-helped-the-voiceless-historical-case-studies
By analogy, I would expect that creating tasty, cost-competitive plant-based meats will probably do more to expand people’s moral concern for farmed animals, than trying to persuade them directly about the evils of factory farming.
Since I think people’s cultural/moral beliefs are basically downstream of the material conditions of society (“moral progress not driven by moral philosophy”), therefore I think that pushing directly for moral circle expansion (via persuasion, philosophical arguments, appeals to empathy, etc) isn’t a great route towards actually expanding people’s moral circles.
Ah okay, thanks for explaining. Sounds like by “pushing for moral circle expansion as a cause area”, you meant “pushing for moral circle expansion via direct advocacy” or something more specific like that. When I and others have talked about “moral circle expansion” as something that we should aim for, we’re usually including all sorts of more or less direct approaches to achieving those goals.
(For what it’s worth, I do think that the direct moral advocacy is an important component, but it doesn’t have to be the only or even main one for you to think moral circle expansion is a promising cause area.)
“I think there are a lot of problems with the idea of directly pushing for moral circle expansion as a cause area—for starters, moral philosophy might not play a large role in actually driving moral progress. ”
Could you please explain to me why, in your view, this is a “problem” with moral circle expansion as a cause area? Thanks!
I like the idea of expanding people’s moral circle, I’m just not sure what interventions might actually work. The straightforward strategy is “just tell people they should expand their moral circle to include Group X”, but I’m often doubtful that strategy this will win converts and lead to lasting change.
For example, my impression is that things like the rise and decline of slavery were mostly fueled by changing economic fundamentals, rather than by people first deciding that slavery was okay and then later remembering that it was bad. If you wanted to have an effect on people’s moral circles, perhaps better to try and influence those fundamentals than trying to persuade people directly? But others have studied these things in much greater depth: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/o4HX48yMGjCrcRqwC/what-helped-the-voiceless-historical-case-studies
By analogy, I would expect that creating tasty, cost-competitive plant-based meats will probably do more to expand people’s moral concern for farmed animals, than trying to persuade them directly about the evils of factory farming.
Since I think people’s cultural/moral beliefs are basically downstream of the material conditions of society (“moral progress not driven by moral philosophy”), therefore I think that pushing directly for moral circle expansion (via persuasion, philosophical arguments, appeals to empathy, etc) isn’t a great route towards actually expanding people’s moral circles.
Ah okay, thanks for explaining. Sounds like by “pushing for moral circle expansion as a cause area”, you meant “pushing for moral circle expansion via direct advocacy” or something more specific like that. When I and others have talked about “moral circle expansion” as something that we should aim for, we’re usually including all sorts of more or less direct approaches to achieving those goals.
(For what it’s worth, I do think that the direct moral advocacy is an important component, but it doesn’t have to be the only or even main one for you to think moral circle expansion is a promising cause area.)