Hmm maybe I spoke too soon. There have been times in different societies when the majority of people would say slavery was good, and times (even before the modern age) when the majority of people would say slavery was bad. But slavery is bad, and according to my argument it's because it feels bad, even if you are mostly unconscious of it.
So my theory of social change is that we individually learn to feel and understand our emotions better, because emotions are the only reason we care about anything at all. The way emotions feel in my body is certainly very objective to me, and the more I understand them the more... (read more)
We are all individually going to seek what we value, so we might as well collectively agree to a system which reflects the preferences of most people.
Completely agree!
❤️ thanks!
For example, high-paying finance jobs are high-stress and many people don't like working them, but they're not actually bad for the world.
That is debatable.
I think trying to be Superman is the problem, but I'm ok if that line of thinking doesn't work for you.
Effective altruism (EA) defines itself as "a philosophical and social movement that advocates taking actions which maximally benefit sentient beings, as determined by evidence and reason."
In practice, effective altruists advocate making as much money as possible and then donating a (ideally large) percentage of it to charity. They also advocate choosing charities based on systematic evaluation of their effectiveness, in order to maximize the benefit of their dollars.
EA has its roots in the philosophical theory of utilitarianism, which can be briefly described as the moral principle that one should take actions which maximize the well-being of all affected individuals. EA is often motivated by arguing that the classic "trolley problem" is an... (read 987 more words →)
The latter. Superman's powers are magical, but our powers are intimately connected to the state of life for the less fortunate. We know that our economic prosperity is based on a mix of innovation and domination, and the more we reduce our involvement in the domination side of it, the more we address the real root of the problem.