I’m not averse to such an approach. I think the criticism how effective altruism determines a consensus of what defines or philosopically grounds “the good” comes from philosophers or other scholars who are weary of populist consensus on ethics when it’s in no way formalized. I’m bringing in David Moss to address this point; he’ll know more.
<Maybe the answer is not to be found in meta-ethics or in analysis generally, but in politics, that is, the raw realities of what people believe and want any given moment, and how consensus forms or doesn’t.
In other words, I think the answer to “what goals are worth pursuing” is, broadly, ask the people you propose to help what it is they want. Luckily, this happens regularly in all sorts of ways, including global scale surveys.>
I guess it depends on what you mean by “what people believe and want any given moment.” If you interpret this as: the results of a life satisfaction survey or maximising preferences or something, then the result will look pretty much like standard consequentialist EA.
If you mean something like: the output of people’s decisions based on collective deliberation, e.g. what a community decides they want collectively as the result of a political process, then it might be (probably will be) something totally different to what you would get if you were trying to maximise preferences.
I’m not averse to such an approach. I think the criticism how effective altruism determines a consensus of what defines or philosopically grounds “the good” comes from philosophers or other scholars who are weary of populist consensus on ethics when it’s in no way formalized. I’m bringing in David Moss to address this point; he’ll know more.
<Maybe the answer is not to be found in meta-ethics or in analysis generally, but in politics, that is, the raw realities of what people believe and want any given moment, and how consensus forms or doesn’t.
In other words, I think the answer to “what goals are worth pursuing” is, broadly, ask the people you propose to help what it is they want. Luckily, this happens regularly in all sorts of ways, including global scale surveys.>
I guess it depends on what you mean by “what people believe and want any given moment.” If you interpret this as: the results of a life satisfaction survey or maximising preferences or something, then the result will look pretty much like standard consequentialist EA.
If you mean something like: the output of people’s decisions based on collective deliberation, e.g. what a community decides they want collectively as the result of a political process, then it might be (probably will be) something totally different to what you would get if you were trying to maximise preferences.
Which of these is closest to the thing meant?