benkuhn comments on A critique of effective altruism - Less Wrong

64 Post author: benkuhn 02 December 2013 04:53PM

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Comment author: benkuhn 02 December 2013 06:47:55PM 5 points [-]

Re your meta point (sorry for taking a while to respond): I now agree with you that this should not be called a "(hypothetical) apostasy" as such. Evidence which updated me in that direction includes:

  1. Your argument
  2. Referencing a "hypothetical apostasy" seems to have already lead to some degradation of the meaning of the term; cf. Diego's calling his counter-argument also an apostasy. (Though this may be a language barrier thing?)
  3. This article got a far more positive response than my verbal anticipations expected (though possibly not than System 1 predicted).

Thanks for calling this out. Should I edit with a disclaimer, do you think?

Comment author: Vaniver 02 December 2013 07:41:11PM 2 points [-]

sorry for taking a while to respond

No problem!

I now agree with you

That's what I like to hear! :P

Should I edit with a disclaimer, do you think?

Probably. If you want do the minimal change, I would rewrite the "how to read this" section to basically be just its last paragraph, with a link to something that you think is a better introduction to EA, and maybe a footnote explaining that you originally wrote this as a response to the apostasy challenge but thought the moderate critique was better.

If you want to do the maximal change, I would do the minimal change and also post the "doom-mongering" parts you deleted, probably as a separate article. (Here, the disclaimer is necessary, though it could be worded so that it isn't.)

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