I haven't done a deep dive into "Effective Altruism" in a philosophical sense. My first encounter with a vocal proponent would fit virtue signaling vanity via perception manipulation.
That said, with my basic understanding of the concept. What would you say of people that practice invisible altruism like Keanu Reeves, Dolly Parton, Robin …
I haven't done a deep dive into "Effective Altruism" in a philosophical sense. My first encounter with a vocal proponent would fit virtue signaling vanity via perception manipulation.
That said, with my basic understanding of the concept. What would you say of people that practice invisible altruism like Keanu Reeves, Dolly Parton, Robin Williams, Levar Burton, Mark Hamill, etc?
This seems like the argument on true altruism being impossible due to the dopamine reward of perceived self-worth from helping someone. Which I find to be a logical critique. Similar to happiness being neurochemical dependency. (On some level) determinism impacting behaviors. Or the benefit of overcoming adversity to an organism as argued here.
I wish you would have steel manned some of the qualities of true altruism akin to what is seen in those I listed. Similarly to how I wish some ardent proselytizing Effective Altruists would accept the biopsychosocial pressures worth critique.
(Effective) Altruism is awesome and real, but so is skepticism of those seemingly preaching to the world how righteous their mirror selfies look.
For me whether or not altruism gives us pleasure (and is therefore selfish) is a red herring. I'm not interested in selfishness in the sense of giving us pleasure, because I think happiness is bullshit: https://www.everythingisbullshit.blog/p/happiness-is-bullshit. For me the more interesting and important question is whether altruism is selfish in the sense of benefitting us via status or reciprocity or alliances or something. I think all altruism is selfish in this latter sense (regardless of happiness). For more on this idea, see here: https://www.everythingisbullshit.blog/p/darwin-the-cynic
Interesting. The evolutionary fitness argument is a good one. I'll admit I hadn't thought of the positive social aspect of anonymous donating in the way you have, I'll have to ponder that one. There's a paper on altruistic Meerkat predation alerting predictability based on proximity & genetic similarity that has some great graphs on the social aspects you discuss for visual learners.
I entirely agree with you that Positive Psychology is great, although in its infancy. I think you may like Second-Wave Positive Psychology by Dr. Paul Wong. It may still have some flaws based on my understanding, but I would liken it to a fusion of PP, Taoism, & "Darwinian Cynicism".
I don't have the same perspective, but I did appreciate the mention in the Darwin piece on the anomalous expressions of altruism. That is where my belief in True Altruism lies. Other than genetic aberration as hypothesized, the only other logical reasoning is neurochemical reinforcement which is why I mentioned the dopamine argument.
I haven't done a deep dive into "Effective Altruism" in a philosophical sense. My first encounter with a vocal proponent would fit virtue signaling vanity via perception manipulation.
That said, with my basic understanding of the concept. What would you say of people that practice invisible altruism like Keanu Reeves, Dolly Parton, Robin Williams, Levar Burton, Mark Hamill, etc?
This seems like the argument on true altruism being impossible due to the dopamine reward of perceived self-worth from helping someone. Which I find to be a logical critique. Similar to happiness being neurochemical dependency. (On some level) determinism impacting behaviors. Or the benefit of overcoming adversity to an organism as argued here.
I wish you would have steel manned some of the qualities of true altruism akin to what is seen in those I listed. Similarly to how I wish some ardent proselytizing Effective Altruists would accept the biopsychosocial pressures worth critique.
(Effective) Altruism is awesome and real, but so is skepticism of those seemingly preaching to the world how righteous their mirror selfies look.
For me whether or not altruism gives us pleasure (and is therefore selfish) is a red herring. I'm not interested in selfishness in the sense of giving us pleasure, because I think happiness is bullshit: https://www.everythingisbullshit.blog/p/happiness-is-bullshit. For me the more interesting and important question is whether altruism is selfish in the sense of benefitting us via status or reciprocity or alliances or something. I think all altruism is selfish in this latter sense (regardless of happiness). For more on this idea, see here: https://www.everythingisbullshit.blog/p/darwin-the-cynic
Interesting. The evolutionary fitness argument is a good one. I'll admit I hadn't thought of the positive social aspect of anonymous donating in the way you have, I'll have to ponder that one. There's a paper on altruistic Meerkat predation alerting predictability based on proximity & genetic similarity that has some great graphs on the social aspects you discuss for visual learners.
I entirely agree with you that Positive Psychology is great, although in its infancy. I think you may like Second-Wave Positive Psychology by Dr. Paul Wong. It may still have some flaws based on my understanding, but I would liken it to a fusion of PP, Taoism, & "Darwinian Cynicism".
I don't have the same perspective, but I did appreciate the mention in the Darwin piece on the anomalous expressions of altruism. That is where my belief in True Altruism lies. Other than genetic aberration as hypothesized, the only other logical reasoning is neurochemical reinforcement which is why I mentioned the dopamine argument.
Thank you for the thought-provoking reads.