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Nisan comments on 'Effective Altruism' as utilitarian equivocation. - Less Wrong Discussion

1 Post author: Dias 24 November 2013 06:35PM

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Comment author: Nisan 24 November 2013 08:07:45PM 9 points [-]

I'm not a memetic architect of the EA movement; but speaking as an observer it seems pretty clear that EA is about doing good by helping others. If you care about other things in addition to helping others, there's still a place for you in the movement, as long as you want to set aside a portion of your resources and help others as much as possible with it. On the other hand, if you aren't interested in the charities that most effectively help people, GiveWell is of no use to you and the EA movement doesn't seem very relevant to you either.

Your interests are broader than the interests held in common by the EA community. This shouldn't be a problem, but reading between the lines it looks like you're disappointed by the movement because they were dismissive of a charitable cause that's important to you. I think it would be best if the EA movement framed its distinctions in terms of "effective (at helping people) vs. not effective (at helping people) charities", instead of "good vs. bad charities", at least in public statements. It was my impression that they're doing a good job of this, but I could be wrong.

Comment author: Dias 24 November 2013 09:07:47PM 2 points [-]

it seems pretty clear that EA is about doing good by helping others.

I half agree... except they explicitly include "justice, fairness and/or other values" in the movement.. Perhaps Luke was not speaking on behalf of the movement there, but it was posted on their website without disclaimer.

Comment author: Nisan 25 November 2013 02:59:42AM 0 points [-]

Oh I see. I wonder what Luke meant by including justice and fairness in there.

Comment author: somervta 25 November 2013 05:35:09AM 2 points [-]

perhaps that increasing justice and fairness will help others.