I have not heard of this movement before, but from your description, it is par for the course for the ultra-reductionism which has overtaken the world, and hence dangerous. ps cool to find a reference to McGilchrist on substack!
Thanks for this Luc. You really are a brilliant thinker and you have a way with words of which the combination of the two is very valuable to me. I come away with a better understanding of what I only had vague ideas about before.
I think the word altruism itself might be the problem. The idea that self-interest is dirty and to be avoided is a perversion of the natural order. As you astutely observe, helping those in your community where you have some intrinsic motivation to guide efforts to help is a much more sensible approach. It is sensible because it isn't "pure" altruism. You can't disentangle self-interest from efforts to do good. The most annoying thing about EA to me is that these folks are definitely acting is self-interest, its just that they're not aware of it. With motivation being the master of reason, little is more dangerous than people that are out there absolutely convinced that they're selflessly doing good while totally unaware of their primary motivation to satisfy their own egos by seeing themselves as saviors of the less fortunate.
Oh man, it’s been years since I thought about these guys. The first time I heard about Roko’s basilisk I almost had an aneurysm.
Their hubristic belief in their ability to determine human needs on a global scale bears some resemblance to our beloved public health bureaucracy.
I have not heard of this movement before, but from your description, it is par for the course for the ultra-reductionism which has overtaken the world, and hence dangerous. ps cool to find a reference to McGilchrist on substack!
Thanks for this Luc. You really are a brilliant thinker and you have a way with words of which the combination of the two is very valuable to me. I come away with a better understanding of what I only had vague ideas about before.
I think the word altruism itself might be the problem. The idea that self-interest is dirty and to be avoided is a perversion of the natural order. As you astutely observe, helping those in your community where you have some intrinsic motivation to guide efforts to help is a much more sensible approach. It is sensible because it isn't "pure" altruism. You can't disentangle self-interest from efforts to do good. The most annoying thing about EA to me is that these folks are definitely acting is self-interest, its just that they're not aware of it. With motivation being the master of reason, little is more dangerous than people that are out there absolutely convinced that they're selflessly doing good while totally unaware of their primary motivation to satisfy their own egos by seeing themselves as saviors of the less fortunate.