I think that this problem is fixed by reducing your identity even further:
“I am a person who aims to find the right and good way for me to be, and my goal is to figure out how to make myself that way.”
This might seem tautological and vacuous. But living up to it means actually forming hypotheses about what the good way to be is, and then testing those hypotheses. I’m confident that “being effective” is part of the good way to be. But, as you point out, effectiveness alone surely isn’t enough. Effectively doing good things, not bad things, makes all the difference.
At any rate, effectiveness itself is only a corollary of the ultimate goal, which is to be good. As a mere corollary, effectiveness does not endanger my recognition of other aspects of being good, such as keeping promises and maintaining a certain kind of loyalty to my local group.
The upshot, in my view, is that AnnaSalamon’s approach ultimately converges on virtue ethics.
I think that this problem is fixed by reducing your identity even further:
“I am a person who aims to find the right and good way for me to be, and my goal is to figure out how to make myself that way.”
This might seem tautological and vacuous. But living up to it means actually forming hypotheses about what the good way to be is, and then testing those hypotheses. I’m confident that “being effective” is part of the good way to be. But, as you point out, effectiveness alone surely isn’t enough. Effectively doing good things, not bad things, makes all the difference.
At any rate, effectiveness itself is only a corollary of the ultimate goal, which is to be good. As a mere corollary, effectiveness does not endanger my recognition of other aspects of being good, such as keeping promises and maintaining a certain kind of loyalty to my local group.
The upshot, in my view, is that AnnaSalamon’s approach ultimately converges on virtue ethics.