DALY's, QALY's, EV, "maximize EV", "most good you can do", "earn to give", etc etc etc... all this language establishes a strong normative frame.
Conversation
This Tweet was deleted by the Tweet author. Learn more
Thanks for the clarification.
The intent may be non-normative, but the language used seems to carry a lot of (very strong) implicit normative claims: "maximize good", "effective", etc.
1
6
In particular, if it were intended purely non-normatively, then it would be fine to rename this as "Ineffective Altruism", for instance. And yet I think the implied content would be quite different.
(I may just have missed the point, perhaps quite badly, here.)
2
1
I realize that I'm being quite unclear here.
I understand: it's intended to be non-prescriptive about _what_ is good.
But the use of "the good" or the notion of "maximizing" already seems to me a strong normative claim, even if you specify nothing about what is "the good".
3
5
…I'm not a moral realist, so if somebody says "why do EA stuff" I can make some arguments and try to make it sound appealing but if it just doesn't interest somebody then I'm just like "oh well, I think it's cool, but I guess it's not for you."
1
3
I will read it, eventually. Currently ploughing through EA canon and near-canon, and (to the extent I can find it) anti-canon.
1
1
This is perhaps a good question for the three of you: I have a large (virtual) stack of canon & near-canon I'm working through: what's most stimulating as anti-canon?
Not in the sense of arguing directly against EA, but in the sense of being in strong tension with (parts of) it?
3
3
Things that seem plausibly anti-canon to me: parts of "Seeing Like a State", Feyerabend, Lakatos, David Deutsch. (I've read all, but will re-read in this frame.) Anything else come to mind?
cc , if you know of things
6
1
10
Yep... at a more tactical level, I like oddball reads like "the inner game of tennis" and Impro to cultivate a mindset able to act on this kind of anti-cannon sensibility


