I really like this post, and I think it is a useful way to frame putting EA thinking on a foundation that is minimal and light on more substantive philosophical commitments. You don’t have to be a total utilitarian, master of expected utility theory and metanormativism to be an EA. You just have to commit to the premise: if I am going to try to do good, I should spend some time rationally thinking about what would be the best way to do that. As it is, the vast majority of people don’t do this. I think that on reflection most people would agree that the way people think about doing good is really pathological. Most departures from EA thinking are not, then, grand philosophical disagreements; they just stem from the fact that people have gone with their passion or fallen into an area or done what feels right
I really like this post, and I think it is a useful way to frame putting EA thinking on a foundation that is minimal and light on more substantive philosophical commitments. You don’t have to be a total utilitarian, master of expected utility theory and metanormativism to be an EA. You just have to commit to the premise: if I am going to try to do good, I should spend some time rationally thinking about what would be the best way to do that. As it is, the vast majority of people don’t do this. I think that on reflection most people would agree that the way people think about doing good is really pathological. Most departures from EA thinking are not, then, grand philosophical disagreements; they just stem from the fact that people have gone with their passion or fallen into an area or done what feels right