Does this matter at all? What if I openly proclaimed that I was going to donate all my money for 100% selfish reasons? Should I be docked points? It seems that EA benefits from being viewed with a “consequentialist gaze” in that the philosophy generally attempts to achieve the best outcomes, although it is arguably no better than other popular viewpoints when it comes to intentions.
To what extent does/should selflessness matter for being an effective altruist?
Does anybody perceive any PR problems related to EA’s closer relationship to Maximum Philanthropy than to Maximum Selflessness?
If someone was only going to donate their money for only selfish reasons, I figure they could and would find something more efficient at making them feel good than donating their money. If someone was so selfish, I doubt what would serve their selfishness best would be donating to efficient charities. If someone was donating for 100% selfish reasons, it would imply they care 0% for those who benefit from the donation. That’s so absurd they likely wouldn’t be donating in the first place.
Of course, there are people with so much money to donate they may benefit socially for being perceived as magnanimous and gain status, without hurting financially or personally for it, and those on the receiving end benefit regardless. In this case, one could be virtually perfectly selfish in donating. Arguably, there are people like this in the world. If this happens within effective altruism, I would hope it’s noticed and countered, lest it become normalized as a perverse incentive. I don’t know to what extent this might already be a problem within effective altruism. While there are criticisms of the personal motivations of effective altruism, ones from within the movement aren’t on how we aren’t being selfless enough. If one wanted to gain benefits of giving only to feel good about oneself, there seems easier ways than effective altruism.
Someone could donate for partially altruistic, but majorly selfish reasons. I’m unsure how to treat this. The thing about altruism from the perspective of this movement is that as long as just as much help is being done, it doesn’t matter it one benefits from it selfishly. The “warm glow” from helping is extra on top of the good already done; it in no way diminishes the amount of altruism achieved. This is exactly the issue Jeff Kaufman covers in his blog post Altruism isn’t about sacrifice. Some people may define altruism as requiring great sacrifice.
They would probably expand “altruism” to something like “making substantial sacrifices for the benefit of others” while I would expand it to just “working to benefit others”. We could go on from there to discuss why they think “making substantial sacrifices” is important in and of itself, to the point of not valuing an approach that “involves salary sacrifice and nothing more.” Maybe we would reach an agreement, maybe we wouldn’t, but we’d get closer to understanding what we disagreed about.
As participants in a broader discourse around “altruism”, however, we should push for an understanding of the term that isn’t about giving things up. Someone who reduces their income to the level of world per-capita GDP or works in 100 degree temperatures hand-delivering meals to homeless people is engaging in intense self-sacrifice, but what matters is how much they’re helping.
[Incomplete response; will finish later today]
To what extent does/should selflessness matter for being an effective altruist?
If someone was only going to donate their money for only selfish reasons, I figure they could and would find something more efficient at making them feel good than donating their money. If someone was so selfish, I doubt what would serve their selfishness best would be donating to efficient charities. If someone was donating for 100% selfish reasons, it would imply they care 0% for those who benefit from the donation. That’s so absurd they likely wouldn’t be donating in the first place.
Of course, there are people with so much money to donate they may benefit socially for being perceived as magnanimous and gain status, without hurting financially or personally for it, and those on the receiving end benefit regardless. In this case, one could be virtually perfectly selfish in donating. Arguably, there are people like this in the world. If this happens within effective altruism, I would hope it’s noticed and countered, lest it become normalized as a perverse incentive. I don’t know to what extent this might already be a problem within effective altruism. While there are criticisms of the personal motivations of effective altruism, ones from within the movement aren’t on how we aren’t being selfless enough. If one wanted to gain benefits of giving only to feel good about oneself, there seems easier ways than effective altruism.
Someone could donate for partially altruistic, but majorly selfish reasons. I’m unsure how to treat this. The thing about altruism from the perspective of this movement is that as long as just as much help is being done, it doesn’t matter it one benefits from it selfishly. The “warm glow” from helping is extra on top of the good already done; it in no way diminishes the amount of altruism achieved. This is exactly the issue Jeff Kaufman covers in his blog post Altruism isn’t about sacrifice. Some people may define altruism as requiring great sacrifice.