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Back to Virtue: Effective Altruism After FTX — MercatorNet

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A conservative Catholic perspective (MercatorNet) critiquing Effective Altruism and longtermism after the FTX scandal; relevant for understanding philosophical and public backlash against EA-aligned AI safety funding and ideology.

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Importance: 28/100opinion piececommentary

Summary

This article critically examines the Effective Altruism movement in the wake of the FTX/Sam Bankman-Fried scandal, arguing that the utilitarian calculus underlying EA—including 'longtermism' and AI existential risk focus—is philosophically flawed. It advocates for a return to virtue ethics as a more reliable moral foundation for charitable and philanthropic action.

Key Points

  • •The FTX collapse and SBF's fraud exposed deep contradictions within Effective Altruism's utilitarian philosophy, where ends-justify-means reasoning enabled misconduct.
  • •The article critiques longtermism and AI existential risk prioritization as speculative frameworks that distort present-day ethical decision-making.
  • •EA's quantitative, utilitarian approach is contrasted unfavorably with virtue ethics, which emphasizes character, integrity, and present moral obligations.
  • •The piece argues that EA's philosophical underpinnings can rationalize unethical behavior by treating current harms as acceptable costs for hypothetical future gains.
  • •A return to traditional virtue-based ethics is proposed as a corrective to the excesses and failures demonstrated by the EA movement.

Cited by 1 page

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Longtermism's Philosophical Credibility After FTX--50.0

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## Back to virtue? Effective altruism after FTX

![Xavier Symons](https://assets.nationbuilder.com/newmediafoundation/profile_images/f0b9a93ace624b164d4094214c52882b6ca30c91.png?1686553592)

[Xavier Symons](https://www.mercatornet.com/77)

January 16, 2023

7 Mins Read[0 Reaction](https://www.mercatornet.com/back-to-virtue-effective-altruism-after-ftx#stream)

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One of the more dramatic recent developments in the world of finance has been the collapse of FTX – a multi-billion dollar crypto-currency exchange founded and run by American tech entrepreneur and celebrity Sam Bankman-Fried (or SBF).

The economics of cryptocurrency is not easy to understand, which makes understanding the collapse of FTX even harder. But in a nutshell, FTX and a sister company – cryptocurrency trading firm Alameda Research – [stand accused](https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2022/12/02/us-justice-department-wants-ftx-fraud-allegations-to-be-investigated/) of “fraud, dishonesty, incompetence, misconduct and mismanagement” that led to the loss of tens of billions in investor funds.

As the dust settles, commentators are asking what the FTX scandal means for the future of effective altruism, a philosophical and social movement inspired by utilitarian thought that was very closely linked to SBF. Leading effective altruist theorist William MacAskill played a role in lending ethical credibility to SBF and even [connected him to potential investment partners](https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/dk9HTJKNAAwaEZTgk/will-m

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