Great comment. To these points I would also add (or maybe just summarize some of the points you made) that “global priorities” seems to have more empirical/world-focused connotations to me, whereas “effective altruism” sounds a lot more philosophical/ideological to me.
E.g. I agree that “global priorities” suggests questions like “what are the big challenges of our time?”, which I like a lot more than e.g. “how altruistic should we be?”, “is there something like ‘true altruism’?” or whichever other thing “effective altruism” makes people first think of.
Of course, I agree that ultimately the project of doing as much good as we can involves both empirical and philosophical questions. But relative to today, I think we’d be better equipped to execute that project well with a stronger emphasis on empirical and practical questions and less emphasis on abstract philosophy. (Though to be fair to the EA label, the status quo is more due to founder effects rather than due to the name differentially attracting philosophers.)
Great comment. To these points I would also add (or maybe just summarize some of the points you made) that “global priorities” seems to have more empirical/world-focused connotations to me, whereas “effective altruism” sounds a lot more philosophical/ideological to me.
E.g. I agree that “global priorities” suggests questions like “what are the big challenges of our time?”, which I like a lot more than e.g. “how altruistic should we be?”, “is there something like ‘true altruism’?” or whichever other thing “effective altruism” makes people first think of.
Of course, I agree that ultimately the project of doing as much good as we can involves both empirical and philosophical questions. But relative to today, I think we’d be better equipped to execute that project well with a stronger emphasis on empirical and practical questions and less emphasis on abstract philosophy. (Though to be fair to the EA label, the status quo is more due to founder effects rather than due to the name differentially attracting philosophers.)