Back
Why Am I Not an Effective Altruist? - Why Philanthropy Matters (citing Srinivasan)
webwhyphilanthropymatters.com·whyphilanthropymatters.com/article/why-am-i-not-an-effect...
A 2022 reflective essay from a philanthropy-focused publication critiquing EA from a sympathetic but skeptical insider-adjacent perspective; useful for understanding mainstream intellectual resistance to EA and longtermism arguments.
Metadata
Importance: 28/100opinion piececommentary
Summary
A thoughtful personal reflection by a philanthropy researcher who attended Oxford alongside early EA figures, exploring genuine ambivalence about the EA movement despite finding much to admire. The piece engages with critiques by philosopher Amia Srinivasan and others, examining the philosophical and practical tensions within EA without simply dismissing it.
Key Points
- •Author has personal proximity to EA's origins at Oxford but never joined the movement, making their ambivalence an interesting case study.
- •Piece distinguishes itself from typical 'takedown' critiques by genuinely grappling with what is and isn't compelling about EA.
- •Engages with Amia Srinivasan's philosophical critique of EA's utilitarian framework and its discomfort with partiality and local attachments.
- •Questions EA's influence on philanthropy broadly, including concerns about the movement's growing institutional power and ideological homogeneity.
- •Written in mid-2022 during the peak of EA's public prominence around MacAskill's 'What We Owe the Future' and SBF's rise.
Cited by 1 page
| Page | Type | Quality |
|---|---|---|
| EA and Longtermist Wins and Losses | -- | 53.0 |
Cached Content Preview
HTTP 200Fetched Mar 20, 202644 KB
[Skip to main content](https://whyphilanthropymatters.com/article/why-am-i-not-an-effective-altruist/#main)
Search the websiteSearch
We explore why, despite there being plenty to admire about Effective Altruism, many are still uneasy about the movement’s ideas and influence.
**17th August 2022**
There has been a spate of articles about Effective Altruism (EA) recently. Some have been good, like these [_New Yorker_ and _Time_ magazine profiles of Will MacAskill](https://time.com/6204627/effective-altruism-longtermism-william-macaskill-interview/), or this [Dylan Matthews Vox piece about Sam Bankman-Fried and the evolution of EA](https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2022/8/8/23150496/effective-altruism-sam-bankman-fried-dustin-moskovitz-billionaire-philanthropy-crytocurrency). And some have been very much not good, like this [rather execrable Wall Street Journal opinion piece](https://www.wsj.com/articles/effective-altruism-is-neither-bankman-fried-givewell-philanthropy-taxes-capitalism-artificial-intelligence-pandemic-pet-projects-11658658039). All of them, however, have given rise to a lot of discussion about EA – which has prompted me to pick up some ideas I have had sitting around in draft form for a while now about my own views of EA and why, despite finding plenty to admire about the movement and its ideas, I just can’t quite get on board the EA train.
Philosopher Will MacAskill, whose new book “What We Owe the Future” has sparked a fresh wave of debate about EA. ( [Image by Sam Deere](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:William_MacAskill_Portrait_2018.jpg), [CC 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en))
I should make it clear that the question posed in the title of the article is a genuine one. The nature of online debate these days tends to imply that if you don’t agree with something you are immediately in the critical camp, and that your job is merely to whoop appreciatively when someone posts the latest “take-down” of whatever the other camp says. But that’s not really how I feel about EA, and the reason I didn’t go for the more obviously clickbait title of “Why I am not an Effective Altruist” is that in all honesty I am still trying to put my finger on precisely what it is about EA that I disagree with or find off-putting. (And I feel as though if I am going to reject it or be critical, I need to be clear with myself about why).
This whole question has added personal relevance for me, as there is a definite “Sliding Doors” scenario in which I could have easily become involved in EA. Back in the mid-2000s, when many of the subsequent key figures of EA (people like Will MacAskill and Toby Ord) were at Oxford University formulating their ideas and getting to know one another, I was also there doing a postgraduate philosophy BPhil. I didn’t have any real interest in philanthropy at that point (my philosophical in
... (truncated, 44 KB total)Resource ID:
53d2a1cd247b38e8 | Stable ID: YmNlMDBmNG