Thank you for this fine post, full of important ideas. I particularly appreciate the effort taken to explain everything clearly and to provide useful references. For context, I recommend OP’s blogpost, the seminar and Alexander Berger’s comments on your post.
I very much support your aim of trying to formalise our ends. Your post shows how many deep and important issues arise when thinking about ends, even just for global health and welfare philanthropy. It is a rare ambition to set out fundamental objectives, so OP should be praised for putting together a usable framework, and being open to improving it.
You make a striking point that it may not be valuable to save the lives of unhappy people. I hope Alexander Berger is right that most of our beneficiaries have positive lives.
You reach the modest conclusion that OP should accommodate a diversity of views about ends. This may be sensible now, but perhaps our thinking about ends will progress and converge over time. We keep going!
Thank you for this fine post, full of important ideas. I particularly appreciate the effort taken to explain everything clearly and to provide useful references. For context, I recommend OP’s blogpost, the seminar and Alexander Berger’s comments on your post.
I very much support your aim of trying to formalise our ends. Your post shows how many deep and important issues arise when thinking about ends, even just for global health and welfare philanthropy. It is a rare ambition to set out fundamental objectives, so OP should be praised for putting together a usable framework, and being open to improving it.
You make a striking point that it may not be valuable to save the lives of unhappy people. I hope Alexander Berger is right that most of our beneficiaries have positive lives.
You reach the modest conclusion that OP should accommodate a diversity of views about ends. This may be sensible now, but perhaps our thinking about ends will progress and converge over time. We keep going!