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Maxim Lott's avatar

Very interesting. It's a bit surprising that in that long conversation, they never discuss the propensity of brilliant people to delude themselves into thinking they're acting in the common good for selfish purposes. Which makes this "esoteric morality" very dangerous.

Sam Bankman Fried of FTX seems like a perfect example of a utilitarian who went wrong by using Singer's precise philosophy here.

And of course the Covid "experts", Iraq War strategists, and "government house officials", are examples of it going wrong a just slightly-less-explictly-utilitarian way.

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J. C. Lester's avatar

"Famine, Affluence, and Morality" is confused in three crucial ways: https://jclester.substack.com/p/peter-singers-famine-affluence-and

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