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> 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
by 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.