As a matter of principle, all charitable activities should stem from an inner need to help poor and needy people and should be selfless. We do not seek profit in them and that is precisely why they are so noble.”
To my best understanding, such a principle has no relation to EA whatsoever. I have yet to find a report by EA, by GiveWell, by GiveDirectly, etc. that takes into account the donors’/participants’ mental state or the nobility of their intentions, and I should hope I never will.
From an EA perspective it doesn’t make a difference whether you are trying to optimize global welfare, whether you’re trying to feel good about helping someone in need, whether you’re trying to fit in with some obscure community of nerds, or whether you’re trying to feel more noble than others. The value of an action is determined purely by its outcomes/results/effects.
This kind of moral posturing actively seeks to exclude people from the EA community, −1 .
As a matter of principle, all charitable activities should stem from an inner need to help poor and needy people and should be selfless. We do not seek profit in them and that is precisely why they are so noble.”
To my best understanding, such a principle has no relation to EA whatsoever. I have yet to find a report by EA, by GiveWell, by GiveDirectly, etc. that takes into account the donors’/participants’ mental state or the nobility of their intentions, and I should hope I never will.
From an EA perspective it doesn’t make a difference whether you are trying to optimize global welfare, whether you’re trying to feel good about helping someone in need, whether you’re trying to fit in with some obscure community of nerds, or whether you’re trying to feel more noble than others. The value of an action is determined purely by its outcomes/results/effects.
This kind of moral posturing actively seeks to exclude people from the EA community, −1 .