He is a simply one of the best philosophers of our time, and the main founder or longtermism. The comment in the original mail list was a modest misstep by a person without special responsibilities at the time, and his apology in 2023 has been entirely appropriate.
The racial IQ gap is an observational fact, and he is not an expert on its determinants, so he shall not take a position on a scientific issue that lays beyond his academic authority.
Does being the best philosopher of our time and the main founder or longtermism mean that he is the best person to run FHI as a Director? I don’t really see the relevance.
Given how the Oxford group has become the most relevant internationally in the academic research of X-risk is hard to argue against his tenure.
Beyond that, my main claim is about the mail incident. I claim: i) the original mail was a minor misstep by a young person without special responsibilities and, ii) not taking a position on the issue of the racial IQ gap is not only acceptable but morally mandatory.
Given how the Oxford group has become the most relevant internationally in the academic research of X-risk is hard to argue against his tenure.
Disagree. The relevance here is what FHI will accomplish in the future, not what it has accomplished in the past. And it seems clear that it is not hard to argue against his tenure as people are clearly doing just that.
Beyond that, my main claim is about the mail incident.
Disagree with you as well, but I am going to stand by my desire to not relitigate the apology here and instead defer that conversation to other threads.
I repeat here my previous post supporting Bostrom, and his apology:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/r3f45au7ewEkypygf/wokism-rethinking-priorities-and-the-bostrom-case
He is a simply one of the best philosophers of our time, and the main founder or longtermism. The comment in the original mail list was a modest misstep by a person without special responsibilities at the time, and his apology in 2023 has been entirely appropriate.
The racial IQ gap is an observational fact, and he is not an expert on its determinants, so he shall not take a position on a scientific issue that lays beyond his academic authority.
Does being the best philosopher of our time and the main founder or longtermism mean that he is the best person to run FHI as a Director? I don’t really see the relevance.
Given how the Oxford group has become the most relevant internationally in the academic research of X-risk is hard to argue against his tenure.
Beyond that, my main claim is about the mail incident. I claim: i) the original mail was a minor misstep by a young person without special responsibilities and, ii) not taking a position on the issue of the racial IQ gap is not only acceptable but morally mandatory.
Disagree. The relevance here is what FHI will accomplish in the future, not what it has accomplished in the past. And it seems clear that it is not hard to argue against his tenure as people are clearly doing just that.
Disagree with you as well, but I am going to stand by my desire to not relitigate the apology here and instead defer that conversation to other threads.