I think that dialogues about which causes to focus on would be most productive if they were focused on specific actions or, even better, charities. This makes them concrete and action relevant for those of deciding whether to donate to, say, deworming or an alternative charity within a different cause area.
I substantially disagree with this. I do think there are some advantages to bringing it right down to the concrete at times, but I think that discussing causes is often useful for deciding things like where to investigate or wait further for specific opportunities, and asking for definite actions can inadvertently cut off consideration of such options.
I’d prefer for example to think of “we already have good knowledge about great charities in global health” as a factor in favour of it as a cause. I think this has the extra benefit that cause comparison is a hard and complicated question, so it’s best to avoid complicating it further by trying to consider how good specific charities are at the same time, if this can be factored out and considered separately.
I do think there are some advantages to bringing it right down to the concrete at times, but I think that discussing causes is often useful for deciding things like where to investigate or wait further for specific opportunities, and asking for definite actions can inadvertently cut off consideration of such options.
That could be so. My focus on this concrete question partly stems from being concerned with the issue I presented at the weekend away talk: I was going to give several thousand pounds to charity that year, so needed to hear a specific alternative that was better than AMF. I also find it helpful to discuss the more tractable issue of choosing between specific charities first, where one can look at things like track record. But there are certainly other ways of looking at the issue!
I substantially disagree with this. I do think there are some advantages to bringing it right down to the concrete at times, but I think that discussing causes is often useful for deciding things like where to investigate or wait further for specific opportunities, and asking for definite actions can inadvertently cut off consideration of such options.
I’d prefer for example to think of “we already have good knowledge about great charities in global health” as a factor in favour of it as a cause. I think this has the extra benefit that cause comparison is a hard and complicated question, so it’s best to avoid complicating it further by trying to consider how good specific charities are at the same time, if this can be factored out and considered separately.
That could be so. My focus on this concrete question partly stems from being concerned with the issue I presented at the weekend away talk: I was going to give several thousand pounds to charity that year, so needed to hear a specific alternative that was better than AMF. I also find it helpful to discuss the more tractable issue of choosing between specific charities first, where one can look at things like track record. But there are certainly other ways of looking at the issue!