In particular, Crary keeps calling EA morally corrupt throughout her piece. Perhaps I have too naïve a view of the academy—but this seems beyond the pale.
Small disagreement: if someone genuinuely believes some work to be morally corrupt, I’d prefer they go out and say it rather than hide behind more euphemisms. I don’t think it’s structurally any different from e.g. calling factory farming “evil” or AI capabilities research “terrible for the world.”
Part of this might just be a norms difference: in most fields regular uses of morally laden language is uncommon, often counterproductive, and comes across as aggressive. But Crary is a moral philosopher, and at their best, the job of a good moral philosopher[1]is to regularly interrogate the nature of good and evil.
Small disagreement: if someone genuinuely believes some work to be morally corrupt, I’d prefer they go out and say it rather than hide behind more euphemisms. I don’t think it’s structurally any different from e.g. calling factory farming “evil” or AI capabilities research “terrible for the world.”
Part of this might just be a norms difference: in most fields regular uses of morally laden language is uncommon, often counterproductive, and comes across as aggressive. But Crary is a moral philosopher, and at their best, the job of a good moral philosopher[1] is to regularly interrogate the nature of good and evil.
not saying that she’s necessarily a good one