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Leif Wenar's 'Takedown' of Effective Altruism

L5 · ResearcherOpinion & AnalysisLessWrong AI· 10/12/2026

Examines philosophical debates around AI safety and effective altruism that influence research priorities.

AI Summary

A philosopher critiques Leif Wenar's Economist article attacking effective altruism, calling it poor public philosophy with weak arguments.

Excerpt

This is a crosspost from my Substack newsletter. This month’s most embarrassing piece of public philosophy appeared on invitation in a piece for The Economist by the Stanford philosopher Leif Wenar. Once more, Wenar tries to gain publicity by singing an obituary for effective altruism, one that oozes with self-confident smugness and hostility. All that may be forgiven if he were right, but his arguments, if one can even call them that, are so poor that I’m embarrassed to be part of the same pro

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