Altruism is not necessarily only knowable through observations in the wild of altruistic behavior or through introspection of altruistic intentions. “Altruism” serves to label a goal in some circumstances of planning, that is, when wanting to have altruistic consequences and calling those consequences “altruistic” as opposed to “harmful”, for example.
What actions serve to achieve altruistic consequences is subject to debate and intersubjective validation of the consequences of actions in context. My altruistic actions are not revealed just by examining my inner motives for altruistic action or my history of personal behavior that I call “altruistic”. I have to have a causal model that links my actions to consequences that satisfy the description “altruistic”.
More simply, you can distinguish what you intend through your actions versus what you cause, and in each case, whether the consequences are altruistic. An emphasis on altruism is then an emphasis on outcomes, not on personal motives for behavior. Effective altruism is then an outcome-oriented set of behaviors, subject to feedback about their consequences in a process like:
analyzing consequences
planning actions
executing actions
reviewing consequences
and back to step 1
That’s just a process model, similar to ones used in business process analyses of various sorts. EA folks care a lot about metrics, QALY’s or WELLBY’s or whatever, you can look into them. The structure of EA institutions mirrors those of other nonprofits, with similar restraints on personal action, I would think. As a cog in an EA machine, your actual role might not feel like self-actualization of altruistic aspirations, but either way the outcome is the same.
Altruism is not necessarily only knowable through observations in the wild of altruistic behavior or through introspection of altruistic intentions. “Altruism” serves to label a goal in some circumstances of planning, that is, when wanting to have altruistic consequences and calling those consequences “altruistic” as opposed to “harmful”, for example.
What actions serve to achieve altruistic consequences is subject to debate and intersubjective validation of the consequences of actions in context. My altruistic actions are not revealed just by examining my inner motives for altruistic action or my history of personal behavior that I call “altruistic”. I have to have a causal model that links my actions to consequences that satisfy the description “altruistic”.
More simply, you can distinguish what you intend through your actions versus what you cause, and in each case, whether the consequences are altruistic. An emphasis on altruism is then an emphasis on outcomes, not on personal motives for behavior. Effective altruism is then an outcome-oriented set of behaviors, subject to feedback about their consequences in a process like:
analyzing consequences
planning actions
executing actions
reviewing consequences
and back to step 1
That’s just a process model, similar to ones used in business process analyses of various sorts. EA folks care a lot about metrics, QALY’s or WELLBY’s or whatever, you can look into them. The structure of EA institutions mirrors those of other nonprofits, with similar restraints on personal action, I would think. As a cog in an EA machine, your actual role might not feel like self-actualization of altruistic aspirations, but either way the outcome is the same.