One example I can think of with regards to people āgraduatingā from philosophies is the idea that people can graduate out of arguably āadolescentā political philosophies like libertarianism and socialism. Often this looks like people realizing society is messy and that simple political philosophies donāt do a good job of capturing and addressing this.
However, I think EA as a philosophy is more robust than the above: There are opportunities to address the immense suffering in the world and to address existential risk, some of these opportunities are much more impactful than others, and itās worth looking for and then executing on these opportunities. I expect this to be true for a very long time.
In general I think effective giving is the best opportunity for most people. We often get fixated on the status of directly working on urgent problems, which I think is a huge mistake. Effective giving is a way to have a profound impact, and I donāt like to think of it as something just āfor mere mortalsāāI think thereās something really amazing about people giving a portion of their income every year to save lives and health, and I think doing so makes you as much an EA as somebody whose job itself is impactful.
One example I can think of with regards to people āgraduatingā from philosophies is the idea that people can graduate out of arguably āadolescentā political philosophies like libertarianism and socialism.
One example I can think of with regards to people āgraduatingā from philosophies is the idea that people can graduate out of arguably āadolescentā political philosophies like libertarianism and socialism. Often this looks like people realizing society is messy and that simple political philosophies donāt do a good job of capturing and addressing this.
However, I think EA as a philosophy is more robust than the above: There are opportunities to address the immense suffering in the world and to address existential risk, some of these opportunities are much more impactful than others, and itās worth looking for and then executing on these opportunities. I expect this to be true for a very long time.
In general I think effective giving is the best opportunity for most people. We often get fixated on the status of directly working on urgent problems, which I think is a huge mistake. Effective giving is a way to have a profound impact, and I donāt like to think of it as something just āfor mere mortalsāāI think thereās something really amazing about people giving a portion of their income every year to save lives and health, and I think doing so makes you as much an EA as somebody whose job itself is impactful.
Despite the people in the EA/ārat-sphere dismissing socialism out of hand as an āadolescentā political philosophy, actual political philosophers who study this for a living are mostly socialists (socialism 59%, capitalism 27%, other 14%)
Thank you for this perspective. I very much agree with your last paragraph!