I don’t feel comfortable saying ‘I’m an effective altruist’, though if someone asks me if I am one the most truthful answer is clearly ‘yes’. I think I’m not that keen on labels in general, though there are some I’m comfortable with, including ‘feminist’ and ‘utilitarian’. I was one of the participants Jonas mentions.
This is basically an instinct rather than a thought-through opinion, but at a guess, the biggest reasons for my hesitation are: - It feels self-aggrandising to call myself ‘an effective altruist’. It feels hard to really know that I’m altruistic (as opposed to doing work I find fulfilling for example), and even harder to know that insofar as I’m altruistic, I’m being effective about it. On the other hand, I understand utilitarian to mean something like ‘I think better outcomes are the ones with more wellbeing in, and those are the ones I’m aiming at’. That feels like something I’m happy to claim. - Identifying some people as ‘effective altruists’ feels like it’s dividing people unnecessarily. I think most people want to help others, and most people would like to do so in a way that’s effective rather than ineffective. Obviously, I really like the idea of there being tools and mechanisms (like this forum) for helping people do that, and also a community of people trying particularly hard to do this and do so in particular ways. And having some label for those does seem useful, so it does seem hard not to do this ‘identifying’.
I don’t feel comfortable saying ‘I’m an effective altruist’, though if someone asks me if I am one the most truthful answer is clearly ‘yes’. I think I’m not that keen on labels in general, though there are some I’m comfortable with, including ‘feminist’ and ‘utilitarian’. I was one of the participants Jonas mentions.
This is basically an instinct rather than a thought-through opinion, but at a guess, the biggest reasons for my hesitation are:
- It feels self-aggrandising to call myself ‘an effective altruist’. It feels hard to really know that I’m altruistic (as opposed to doing work I find fulfilling for example), and even harder to know that insofar as I’m altruistic, I’m being effective about it. On the other hand, I understand utilitarian to mean something like ‘I think better outcomes are the ones with more wellbeing in, and those are the ones I’m aiming at’. That feels like something I’m happy to claim.
- Identifying some people as ‘effective altruists’ feels like it’s dividing people unnecessarily. I think most people want to help others, and most people would like to do so in a way that’s effective rather than ineffective. Obviously, I really like the idea of there being tools and mechanisms (like this forum) for helping people do that, and also a community of people trying particularly hard to do this and do so in particular ways. And having some label for those does seem useful, so it does seem hard not to do this ‘identifying’.
+1