(Person-affecting views also typically give up transitivity, the independence of irrelevant alternatives or completeness/full comparability.)
These views seem quite strange to me. I’d be curious to understand who these people are that believe this. Are these views common among groups of Effective Altruists, or philosophers, or perhaps other groups?
I’d guess person-affecting intuitions are common (like at least a substantial minority), including among EAs, but I’d also guess most people with them don’t have very specific views worked out, and working out person-affecting theories intuitive even to those with person-affecting intuitions seems hard, e.g. my post here and this one (although see also responses in the comments). It’s probably easier for some than others, depending on their other intuitions.
Person-affecting intuitions and views are probably more common among people with more contractualist (e.g. Finneron-Burns, 2017) or Kantian leanings.
A couple posts defending person-affecting intuitions, mostly the procreation asymmetry,[1] have been well-received on the EA Forum:
I would say I have asymmetric person-affecting views. This post kind of describes where I’m at, ignoring the asymmetry. (And I’m working on another post.)
Although the procreation asymmetry is compatible with negative utilitarianism, which isn’t really person-affecting at all, and doesn’t violate transitivity, IIA or completeness.
These views seem quite strange to me. I’d be curious to understand who these people are that believe this. Are these views common among groups of Effective Altruists, or philosophers, or perhaps other groups?
I’d guess person-affecting intuitions are common (like at least a substantial minority), including among EAs, but I’d also guess most people with them don’t have very specific views worked out, and working out person-affecting theories intuitive even to those with person-affecting intuitions seems hard, e.g. my post here and this one (although see also responses in the comments). It’s probably easier for some than others, depending on their other intuitions.
Person-affecting intuitions and views are probably more common among people with more contractualist (e.g. Finneron-Burns, 2017) or Kantian leanings.
A couple posts defending person-affecting intuitions, mostly the procreation asymmetry,[1] have been well-received on the EA Forum:
Critique of MacAskill’s “Is It Good to Make Happy People?” by Magnus Vinding (high karma, many votes)
Population Ethics Without Axiology: A Framework by Lukas_Gloor (one of the top prize winners for the EA Criticism and Red Teaming Contest)
Also some discussion in Confused about “making people happy” vs. “making happy people” and the comments.
I would say I have asymmetric person-affecting views. This post kind of describes where I’m at, ignoring the asymmetry. (And I’m working on another post.)
Although the procreation asymmetry is compatible with negative utilitarianism, which isn’t really person-affecting at all, and doesn’t violate transitivity, IIA or completeness.