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The original idea of EA was to convince students to take "immoral" but good paying jobs on Wallstreet in order to donate the earned money to charities (Mainly c
by janmo 3y ago
The original idea of EA was to convince students to take "immoral" but good paying jobs on Wallstreet in order to donate the earned money to charities (Mainly charities owned by other effective altruists).
EA is thus an excuse / incitation to commit immoral and in SBF's and his co-conspirators case illegal things.
- codq 3y agoYes, it's a way of excusing lifestyles of luxury via immoral causes. The modern equivalent of paying indulgences to the Catholic Church; the wealthly have always sought ways of justifying the grotesqueries of their lifestyles. Indeed for many, it's the primary labor of their lives.
- user3939382 3y ago> equivalent of paying indulgences Only approximately. Indulgences were used as a penance which was only possible on the precondition of true contrition. There is no such contrition in the philosophy of EA.
- MadnessASAP 3y agoI don't know much about EA other then it sounds like a way for the rich to justify their existence. Indulgences however they may have started, became grossly twisted and simplified until it was giving money to the church in exchange for absolving sins.
- avgcorrection 3y agoKarl Marx: There is this thing in modernity called “alienation”... EA: How wonderful! It shall be our moral centerpiece.
- PaulDavisThe1st 3y ago> The original idea of EA was to convince students to take "immoral" but good paying jobs on Wallstreet No, this isn't the original idea. It's one that came up when people started trying to combine utilitarianism and arithmetic with the actual original idea: to ask the question "How can I do the most good in the world?"
- jprete 3y agoI have only ever observed EA as completely dominated by hardcore utilitarian philosophy, so it's interesting to read the statement that EA originally was not utilitarian. Do you have any information about what EA was like in that early period?
- PaulDavisThe1st 3y agoTFA has a brief description. Note that I said "utilitarianism and arithmetic". It is one thing to say "saving 2M people from disease is better than saving 200 people from death". It is something quite different to say "it is X times better".
- colpabar 3y agoNow tell us "true EA has never been attempted"
- PaulDavisThe1st 3y agoNot at all. My impression is that it was attempted, didn't last very long, rapidly got corrupted by arithmetical utilitarianism, perhaps inevitably. Also, I'd probably say "simple EA", since I have no idea what "true EA" would even mean.
- HDThoreaun 3y agoThis just isn't true. Earn to give is not in any way the original idea of EA.
- strikelaserclaw 3y agoJust like most good ideas, it becomes corrupted by human greed.