Error
Unrecognized LW server error:
Field "fmCrosspost" of type "CrosspostOutput" must have a selection of subfields. Did you mean "fmCrosspost { ... }"?Unrecognized LW server error:
Field "fmCrosspost" of type "CrosspostOutput" must have a selection of subfields. Did you mean "fmCrosspost { ... }"?
Given the diversity of ethical views in the EA movement, I think “EAs are not entirely altruistic” would be a more appropriate title than “EAs are not perfect utilitarians”.
If effective altruists aren’t perfect utilitarians because they’re human, and humans can’t be perfect utilitarians because they’re human, maybe the problem is effective altruists trying to be perfect utilitarians despite their inability to do so, and that’s why they make mistakes. What do you think of that?
I don’t think this gets us very far. You’re making a utilitarian argument (or certainly an argument consistent with utilitarianism) in favour of not trying to be a perfect utilitarian. Paradoxically, this is what a perfect utilitarian would do given the information that they have about their own limits—they’re human, as you put it. For someone such as myself who believes that utilitarianism is likely to be objectively true, therefore, I already know not to be a perfectionist.
Ultimately, Singer put it best: do the most good that you can do.
I think the easiest way I have for explaining why people don’t do the things that others expect of them, and may assume laziness or immorality, is to first ask themselves why they don’t donate 1% more or give one more hour or spend more time researching.
This probably goes together with people having different weighting for different causes.
good article