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Lumifer comments on Effective Altruism from XYZ perspective - Less Wrong Discussion

4 Post author: Clarity 08 July 2015 04:34AM

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Tags: places market assumptions economics capitalism prioritarianism utilitarianism fuzzies warm altruism effective

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Comment author: Lumifer 10 July 2015 03:44:00PM 0 points [-]

it is not something that logically follows from the basic idea of directing resources wherever they can do the most good

It depends on how do you define "good". In particular, in some value systems (and in some contexts) human lives are valued according to their productivity, and in other value systems and contexts, lives are valued regardless of their economic use or potential.

Comment author: VoiceOfRa 12 July 2015 03:56:34AM 5 points [-]

Even if he values human lives terminally, a utilitarian should assign unequal instrumental value to different human lives and make decision based on the combination of both.

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