It gives a pretty fair exposition on the EA movement, including recognising its diversity of thought.
It argues that important types of “good” are much less measurable (because they are abstract, long term, or don’t make sense on am individual level), but have to be taken into account. It also argues explicitly against Longtermism, ostensibly promoting a discount coefficient close to, but smaller than, 1.
It derives some conclusions on things that ought to be done, like labor unions and mutual aid communities.
I agree with most of it, but struggle to see how this all implies the focus on local action that underlies it.
For example, this is a core paragraph:
What might “moral good” look like outside of market-derived values (like the maximization principle)? How can we collectively decide to allocate resources? How can we build societies based on principles that cannot be measured, like mutual respect and solidarity? How can we eliminate material misery from the world? What might we do to ensure the flourishing of future generations, rather than just their survival? How can we depart from a society where those who have the privilege to choose to care about others can, and move towards a society where everyone has the power to care about others and must?
And indeed most of these are guiding questions for me too; and so far, they’ve mostly guided me to Effective Altruism, even if they also encourage additional actions that the EA movement isn’t yet taking.
My very short summary of the post:
It gives a pretty fair exposition on the EA movement, including recognising its diversity of thought.
It argues that important types of “good” are much less measurable (because they are abstract, long term, or don’t make sense on am individual level), but have to be taken into account. It also argues explicitly against Longtermism, ostensibly promoting a discount coefficient close to, but smaller than, 1.
It derives some conclusions on things that ought to be done, like labor unions and mutual aid communities.
I agree with most of it, but struggle to see how this all implies the focus on local action that underlies it.
For example, this is a core paragraph:
And indeed most of these are guiding questions for me too; and so far, they’ve mostly guided me to Effective Altruism, even if they also encourage additional actions that the EA movement isn’t yet taking.