Hm, I’m not convinced that this distinction carves reality at the joints. I notice that your examples of “intensional” movements are mostly either ideas/memes or organizations. I think it’s definitely interesting to have a meme level view of EA, or an organization level view. But I’m also inclined to think that the movement level view also has some predictive value.
To try to break your dichotomy more explicitly, does the skeptic movement qualify as intensional or extensional? They seem intensional in the sense that skepticism, in theory, points to a way of looking at the world rather than a predetermined set of conclusions. But in practice, everyone refers to the skeptic movement as a movement and they seem very movement-like. It’s even possible that skepticism started out as an intension and it eventually became an extensional movement as it grew, with unfortunate results.
Or take 80K… why is it not an “intension” in the sense that it points to whatever the most effective careers for people to take are?
Hm, I’m not convinced that this distinction carves reality at the joints. I notice that your examples of “intensional” movements are mostly either ideas/memes or organizations. I think it’s definitely interesting to have a meme level view of EA, or an organization level view. But I’m also inclined to think that the movement level view also has some predictive value.
To try to break your dichotomy more explicitly, does the skeptic movement qualify as intensional or extensional? They seem intensional in the sense that skepticism, in theory, points to a way of looking at the world rather than a predetermined set of conclusions. But in practice, everyone refers to the skeptic movement as a movement and they seem very movement-like. It’s even possible that skepticism started out as an intension and it eventually became an extensional movement as it grew, with unfortunate results.
Or take 80K… why is it not an “intension” in the sense that it points to whatever the most effective careers for people to take are?
I think your description of what the skeptic movement possibly is is perfectly accurate, as are the unfortunate results you mention.