Freddie Deboer Is Wrong About Effective Altruism R Samharris A response to two recent posts from the popular writer freddie deboer criticizing effective altruism and utilitarianism. while he goes to town on the softest targets and the lowest hanging fruit, it’s what he leaves unsaid that exposes the hollowness of his critique. americandreaming.substack p freddie deboer is wrong about effective. A popular (but silly) criticism of effective altruism is that it is entirely vacuous. as freddie deboer writes: [t]his sounds like so obvious and general a project that it can hardly denote a specific philosophy or project at all… [t]his is an utterly banal set of goals that are shared by literally everyone who sincerely tries to act charitably.
Freddie Deboer Is Wrong About Effective Altruism I think it's very relevant to the effective altruism movement today. the newtonian part of it is the classic "let's figure out how most effectively save improve peoples' lives by donating generously and wisely, and persuade people to do this". Why should people judge effective altruism on its big successes, but anti racism on its small failures? one answer: don’t have opinions on movements at all, judge each policy proposal individually. then you can support freeing the slaves, but oppose cancel culture. “on this giving tuesday i’d like to explain to you why effective altruism is bad” and then reasonably backing it up makes this the epitome of a freddie post. This, more than anything else, is why sbf proved to be damning to ea. any movement can be hijacked by self dealing grifters. but effective altruism’s basic recruiting strategy is tailor made for producing them.
Freddie Deboer Is Wrong About Effective Altruism “on this giving tuesday i’d like to explain to you why effective altruism is bad” and then reasonably backing it up makes this the epitome of a freddie post. This, more than anything else, is why sbf proved to be damning to ea. any movement can be hijacked by self dealing grifters. but effective altruism’s basic recruiting strategy is tailor made for producing them. Utilitarianism inevitably comes to conclusions that violate our moral instincts to such a degree that most people will never follow along. indeed, what makes singer admirable (albeit frequently wrong) is that he’s actually willing to own utilitarianism’s repugnant endpoints. 43 votes, 13 comments. 19k subscribers in the sneerclub community. steeple of the sneer. My criticism of effective altruism and utilitarianism is that it arrogantly assumes that humans know what action will lead to the greatest good happiness lack of suffering. in reality, good intentions lead to bad outcomes all the time. There’s a hard core of effective altruism that has an obvious broad appeal. nearly all of us agree that preventing malaria deaths and addressing severe poverty are good, important goals. but lots of people (like me!) find themselves really put off by effective altruism, even though we may know and respect people in the movement.
Freddie Deboer Is Wrong About Effective Altruism Utilitarianism inevitably comes to conclusions that violate our moral instincts to such a degree that most people will never follow along. indeed, what makes singer admirable (albeit frequently wrong) is that he’s actually willing to own utilitarianism’s repugnant endpoints. 43 votes, 13 comments. 19k subscribers in the sneerclub community. steeple of the sneer. My criticism of effective altruism and utilitarianism is that it arrogantly assumes that humans know what action will lead to the greatest good happiness lack of suffering. in reality, good intentions lead to bad outcomes all the time. There’s a hard core of effective altruism that has an obvious broad appeal. nearly all of us agree that preventing malaria deaths and addressing severe poverty are good, important goals. but lots of people (like me!) find themselves really put off by effective altruism, even though we may know and respect people in the movement.
Altruism Sharpens Altruism Ea Forum My criticism of effective altruism and utilitarianism is that it arrogantly assumes that humans know what action will lead to the greatest good happiness lack of suffering. in reality, good intentions lead to bad outcomes all the time. There’s a hard core of effective altruism that has an obvious broad appeal. nearly all of us agree that preventing malaria deaths and addressing severe poverty are good, important goals. but lots of people (like me!) find themselves really put off by effective altruism, even though we may know and respect people in the movement.
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