To heavily simplify my view, EA is largely formed by two key aspects:
An ethical/normative view that “Maximizing [good] is ideal/desirable”;
An epistemic and methods emphasis on things like open-mindedness, using more critical thinking vs. passion impulses, emphasizing the importance of research, thinking at the marginal level (debatably), etc.
The first aspect in my view is open to a lot of interpretation around the word “good,” and is the only aspect that should matter here, I think. Utilitarianism defines good in terms of consequences (either pleasure vs. suffering or preferences, depending on your flavor of util). Deontology defines good in terms of rights, duties, categorical imperatives, etc. Virtue ethics focuses on virtue… and so on. This shouldn’t pose any problem for alternative ethical theories.
I know that some ethical theories (somewhat strangely/artificially in my view) have this in-built thing saying “oh, you don’t need to maximize goodness, some good actions are just supererogatory” (@Deontology). This might seem to pose issues for compatibility, but to head off this rabbit trail (which I can explain in more detail if anyone is actually curious enough to ask), I don’t think it is an issue.
The second aspect of EA is irrelevant to any (¿legitimate?) moral theories in my view, since I don’t think that “moral theories” should (definitionally speaking) go beyond identifying what is “good”/what makes one world better than an alternative world. (You could theoretically try to bundle a bunch of epistemic or prescriptive claims like “You should emphasize listening to women/marginalized groups” along with some ethical theory and call the whole bundle an ethical theory, but that would presumably be misleading)
However, the parenthetical above does hit on a potential key issue, which is that I think different ethical theories probably tend to be associated with different epistemic/etc. worldviews.
To heavily simplify my view, EA is largely formed by two key aspects:
An ethical/normative view that “Maximizing [good] is ideal/desirable”;
An epistemic and methods emphasis on things like open-mindedness, using more critical thinking vs. passion impulses, emphasizing the importance of research, thinking at the marginal level (debatably), etc.
The first aspect in my view is open to a lot of interpretation around the word “good,” and is the only aspect that should matter here, I think. Utilitarianism defines good in terms of consequences (either pleasure vs. suffering or preferences, depending on your flavor of util). Deontology defines good in terms of rights, duties, categorical imperatives, etc. Virtue ethics focuses on virtue… and so on. This shouldn’t pose any problem for alternative ethical theories.
I know that some ethical theories (somewhat strangely/artificially in my view) have this in-built thing saying “oh, you don’t need to maximize goodness, some good actions are just supererogatory” (@Deontology). This might seem to pose issues for compatibility, but to head off this rabbit trail (which I can explain in more detail if anyone is actually curious enough to ask), I don’t think it is an issue.
The second aspect of EA is irrelevant to any (¿legitimate?) moral theories in my view, since I don’t think that “moral theories” should (definitionally speaking) go beyond identifying what is “good”/what makes one world better than an alternative world. (You could theoretically try to bundle a bunch of epistemic or prescriptive claims like “You should emphasize listening to women/marginalized groups” along with some ethical theory and call the whole bundle an ethical theory, but that would presumably be misleading)
However, the parenthetical above does hit on a potential key issue, which is that I think different ethical theories probably tend to be associated with different epistemic/etc. worldviews.