Maybe by âroot causeâ, they mean causes that are common to many or even most of the worldâs worst ills (and also that can be acted upon, as you suggest)? You write a joint causal diagram for them, and you find that oppression, exploitation, hierarchy and capitalism are causes for most of them and fairly unique in this way.
Are there other causes that are so cross-cutting (depending on your ethical views)?
1. Humans not being more ethical, reflective and/âor rational.
2. Sentient individuals exist at all (for ethical antinatalists and efilists).
3. Suffering is still physically possible among sentient individuals (the Hedonistic Imperative).
I really like the conception of thinking of root causes in terms of a âjoint causal diagram!â Though Iâd like to understand if this is an operationalization that leftist scholars would also agree with, at the risk of this being a âsteelmanâ that is very far away from the intended purpose.
I think there arenât many joint root causes since so many of them are less about facts of the world and depend implicitly on your normative ethics. (As a trivial example, thereâs a sense in which the root cause of poverty, climate change and species extinctions is human population if you have an average utilitarian stance, but for many other aggregative views, trying to fix this will be abhorrent).
Some that I can think of:
1. A world primarily ruled by humans, instead of (as you say) âmore ethical, reflective and/âor rationalâ beings.
1a. evolution
1b. humans evolving from small-group omnivores instead of large-group herbivores
2. Coordination problems
3. Insufficient material resources
4. Something else?
I also disagree with the idea that âcapitalismâ(just to pick one example) is the joint root cause for most of the worldâs ills.
A. This is obviously wrong compared to something like evolution.
B. Global poverty predates capitalism and so does wild animal suffering, pandemic risk, asteroid risk, etc. (Also other problems commonly talked about like racism, sexism, biodiversity loss)
C. No obvious reason why non-capitalist individual states (in an anarchic world order) would not still have major coordination problems around man-made existential risks and other issues.
D. Indeed, we have empirical experience of the bickering and rising tensions between Communist states in the mid-late 1900s.
I also disagree with the idea that âcapitalismâ(just to pick one example) is the joint root cause for most of the worldâs ills.
A. This is obviously wrong compared to something like evolution.
B. Global poverty predates capitalism and so does wild animal suffering, pandemic risk, asteroid risk, etc. (Also other problems commonly talked about like racism, sexism, biodiversity loss)
C. No obvious reason why non-capitalist individual states (in an anarchic world order) would not still have major coordination problems around man-made existential risks and other issues.
D. Indeed, we have empirical experience of the bickering and rising tensions between Communist states in the mid-late 1900s.
A leftist might not claim capitalism is the only joint root cause. But to respond to each:
A. Canât change the past, so not useful.
B. This isnât a counterfactual claim about what would happen if we replaced capitalism with some specific different system. Capitalism allows these issues, while another system might not, so in counterfactual terms, capitalism can still be a cause. (But socialist countries were often racist and homophobic. So socialism doesnât solve the issue, but again, many of todayâs (Western?) leftists arenât only concerned with capitalism, but also oppression and hierarchy generally, and may have different specific systems in mind.) I donât know to what extent leftists think of causes in such counterfactual terms instead of historical terms, though.
C. Leftists might think certain systems would be better than capitalist ones on these issues, and have reasons for those beliefs. For what itâs worth, systems also shape peopleâs attitudes or attitudes would covary with the system, so if greed is a major cause of these issues and itâs suppressed under a specific non-capitalist system, this might partially address these issues. Also, some leftists want to reform the global world order, too. Socialist world government? Leftists disagree on how much should be top-down vs decentralized, though.
D. Not the systems they have in mind anymore. I think a lot of (most?) (Western?) leftists have moved onto some kind of social democracy (technically still capitalist), democratic socialism or anarchism.
Maybe by âroot causeâ, they mean causes that are common to many or even most of the worldâs worst ills (and also that can be acted upon, as you suggest)? You write a joint causal diagram for them, and you find that oppression, exploitation, hierarchy and capitalism are causes for most of them and fairly unique in this way.
Are there other causes that are so cross-cutting (depending on your ethical views)?
1. Humans not being more ethical, reflective and/âor rational.
2. Sentient individuals exist at all (for ethical antinatalists and efilists).
3. Suffering is still physically possible among sentient individuals (the Hedonistic Imperative).
I really like the conception of thinking of root causes in terms of a âjoint causal diagram!â Though Iâd like to understand if this is an operationalization that leftist scholars would also agree with, at the risk of this being a âsteelmanâ that is very far away from the intended purpose.
Still itâs interesting to think about.
I think there arenât many joint root causes since so many of them are less about facts of the world and depend implicitly on your normative ethics. (As a trivial example, thereâs a sense in which the root cause of poverty, climate change and species extinctions is human population if you have an average utilitarian stance, but for many other aggregative views, trying to fix this will be abhorrent).
Some that I can think of:
1. A world primarily ruled by humans, instead of (as you say) âmore ethical, reflective and/âor rationalâ beings.
1a. evolution
1b. humans evolving from small-group omnivores instead of large-group herbivores
2. Coordination problems
3. Insufficient material resources
4. Something else?
I also disagree with the idea that âcapitalismâ(just to pick one example) is the joint root cause for most of the worldâs ills.
A. This is obviously wrong compared to something like evolution.
B. Global poverty predates capitalism and so does wild animal suffering, pandemic risk, asteroid risk, etc. (Also other problems commonly talked about like racism, sexism, biodiversity loss)
C. No obvious reason why non-capitalist individual states (in an anarchic world order) would not still have major coordination problems around man-made existential risks and other issues.
D. Indeed, we have empirical experience of the bickering and rising tensions between Communist states in the mid-late 1900s.
A leftist might not claim capitalism is the only joint root cause. But to respond to each:
A. Canât change the past, so not useful.
B. This isnât a counterfactual claim about what would happen if we replaced capitalism with some specific different system. Capitalism allows these issues, while another system might not, so in counterfactual terms, capitalism can still be a cause. (But socialist countries were often racist and homophobic. So socialism doesnât solve the issue, but again, many of todayâs (Western?) leftists arenât only concerned with capitalism, but also oppression and hierarchy generally, and may have different specific systems in mind.) I donât know to what extent leftists think of causes in such counterfactual terms instead of historical terms, though.
C. Leftists might think certain systems would be better than capitalist ones on these issues, and have reasons for those beliefs. For what itâs worth, systems also shape peopleâs attitudes or attitudes would covary with the system, so if greed is a major cause of these issues and itâs suppressed under a specific non-capitalist system, this might partially address these issues. Also, some leftists want to reform the global world order, too. Socialist world government? Leftists disagree on how much should be top-down vs decentralized, though.
D. Not the systems they have in mind anymore. I think a lot of (most?) (Western?) leftists have moved onto some kind of social democracy (technically still capitalist), democratic socialism or anarchism.