Thanks David. I might be missing something here, but it seems like this is more criticism of Longtermism rather than EA as a whole. I’ve only read your summary, but I can’t find critcisms of core EA principles and short-termist stuff. Perhaps the title should reflect that?
Thanks Nick! A lot of my skepticism does concentrate on longtermism. I think that short-termist EA has often done a lot of good, and that’s one of the things I like about effective altruism. I will try in the future to say some things that aren’t confined to longtermism. In particular, so far I’ve been talking entirely about views held by effective altruists, but I’d also like to have some discussions of practices within the movement, and those practices often cut across short- and long-termism.
Within short-termist EA, one way to think about why even a broadly consequentialist, science-loving academic might have some lingering doubts would be to ask who benefits vs. who is harmed, and who is represented or heard vs. who is not. I think that the forthcoming Adams et al volume does a really good job bringing out some of these questions. I’m holding off on discussing it because the release date is a few months off, and it doesn’t do much good to discuss a book that nobody can buy yet. But I’m very much looking forward to talking about these sorts of issues.
Thanks David. I might be missing something here, but it seems like this is more criticism of Longtermism rather than EA as a whole. I’ve only read your summary, but I can’t find critcisms of core EA principles and short-termist stuff. Perhaps the title should reflect that?
Thanks Nick! A lot of my skepticism does concentrate on longtermism. I think that short-termist EA has often done a lot of good, and that’s one of the things I like about effective altruism. I will try in the future to say some things that aren’t confined to longtermism. In particular, so far I’ve been talking entirely about views held by effective altruists, but I’d also like to have some discussions of practices within the movement, and those practices often cut across short- and long-termism.
Within short-termist EA, one way to think about why even a broadly consequentialist, science-loving academic might have some lingering doubts would be to ask who benefits vs. who is harmed, and who is represented or heard vs. who is not. I think that the forthcoming Adams et al volume does a really good job bringing out some of these questions. I’m holding off on discussing it because the release date is a few months off, and it doesn’t do much good to discuss a book that nobody can buy yet. But I’m very much looking forward to talking about these sorts of issues.