📄️ The Moral Value of Ideas
Think of one good thing you have done recently. However small the impact, reflect on that morally positive act for a second... Maybe you helped someone with a chore on your own time. Or, maybe you gave a friend or family member some emotional support. In this note, I am going to present an argument for why spreading certain types of ideas might be of at least as much, if not vastly more, moral value than some of these more conventionally good acts. More specifically, I will argue that creating, sharing, adopting and disputing new and old ideas, provided they are the right kind of ideas, is underestimated in its effect as a morally positive thing. I will also present some common roles we can take on as stewards of ideas to make us better moral actors with respect to them.
📄️ Locating Myself Metaethically
This is a new topic for me. I am just experiencing a spark of interest in metaethics. What follows will be a high-level tour of the most popular and most documented metaethical positions and my initial reactions to them. Many of the positions covered here will be entirely new to me and I will not have the space or time to completely make my mind up about many of the arguments. Given the sheer volume of fascinating work that exists on metaethics, it would be irrational to expect that I would walk away from this tour with my mind completely made up.
📄️ Extreme Wealth
First, my pledge: More than 99% of my wealth will go to philanthropy during my lifetime or at death. Measured by dollars, this commitment is large. In a comparative sense, though, many individuals give more to others every day.