“Virtue is its own reward” is a nice thing to believe in when you feel respected, protected and loved. When you feel tired, lonely and afraid, and nobody cares at all, it’s very hard to understand why you should be making big sacrifices for the sake of virtue. But, hey, people are different. Maybe, for you virtue is truly, unconditionally, its own reward, and a sufficient one at that. And maybe EA is a community professional circle only for people who are that stoic and selfless. But, if so, please put the warning in big letters on the lid.
The EA movement is rather like a church. (I have in mind the Catholic and Orthodox churches, not the new-fangled outfits that developed after the Reformation.) The prominent philosophers, like Peter Singer, are the prophets. The people who found and run organisations like GiveWell are the clergy. There are the rank and file members, who are the monks toiling on the work of the church. There are lay preachers, such as Scott Alexander. There are ordinary folk who do no more than tithe to the approved charities or turn vegetarian. And caught up in all that there are a few who have argued themselves into an unsustainable religious mania.
It is a professional circle founded on a moral ideal. The former to be Effective, the latter to be Altruistic.
It is an old saying that virtue is its own reward.
“Virtue is its own reward” is a nice thing to believe in when you feel respected, protected and loved. When you feel tired, lonely and afraid, and nobody cares at all, it’s very hard to understand why you should be making big sacrifices for the sake of virtue. But, hey, people are different. Maybe, for you virtue is truly, unconditionally, its own reward, and a sufficient one at that. And maybe EA is a
communityprofessional circle only for people who are that stoic and selfless. But, if so, please put the warning in big letters on the lid.I have 700 warnings in big letters here!
The EA movement is rather like a church. (I have in mind the Catholic and Orthodox churches, not the new-fangled outfits that developed after the Reformation.) The prominent philosophers, like Peter Singer, are the prophets. The people who found and run organisations like GiveWell are the clergy. There are the rank and file members, who are the monks toiling on the work of the church. There are lay preachers, such as Scott Alexander. There are ordinary folk who do no more than tithe to the approved charities or turn vegetarian. And caught up in all that there are a few who have argued themselves into an unsustainable religious mania.