1. Yes, it’s definitely taken seriously but it’s currently widely misunderstood—associated very closely with Peter Singer’s views.
2. I think that Larry himself is more sympathetic to what EA is doing after my and others’ conversations with him, or at least has a more nuanced view. But in terms of bystanders—yes, from my impressions at the lectures I think the audience came out more EA-sympathetic than when they went in. And especially at the graduate level there’s a lot of recent interest, driven primarily by GPI, and for that purpose it’s important to engage with critiques, especially if they are high-profile.
3. Honestly, not really. Outsiders usually have some straw man perception of EA, and so the critiques aren’t that helpful. The best critiques I’ve found have tended to come from insiders, but I’m hoping that will change as more unsympathetic academics better understand what EA is and isn’t claiming. I do find engaging with philosophers who have very different views of morality (e.g. that there’s just no such thing as ‘the good’) very helpful though.
In order:
1. Yes, it’s definitely taken seriously but it’s currently widely misunderstood—associated very closely with Peter Singer’s views.
2. I think that Larry himself is more sympathetic to what EA is doing after my and others’ conversations with him, or at least has a more nuanced view. But in terms of bystanders—yes, from my impressions at the lectures I think the audience came out more EA-sympathetic than when they went in. And especially at the graduate level there’s a lot of recent interest, driven primarily by GPI, and for that purpose it’s important to engage with critiques, especially if they are high-profile.
3. Honestly, not really. Outsiders usually have some straw man perception of EA, and so the critiques aren’t that helpful. The best critiques I’ve found have tended to come from insiders, but I’m hoping that will change as more unsympathetic academics better understand what EA is and isn’t claiming. I do find engaging with philosophers who have very different views of morality (e.g. that there’s just no such thing as ‘the good’) very helpful though.