Re. "But if we take our enthusiasm for data and analysis too far, we risk becoming judgmental about how others give. Each of us has different gifts."
Somewhere I read this same idea about the "shopping cart test": the idea is not to administer the test on others; the idea is to pass the test ourselves.
On "local causes", here is a CS Lewis quote from a letter to a friend:
"It is one of the evils of rapid diffusion of news that the sorrows of all the world come to us every morning. I think each village was meant to feel pity for its own sick and poor whom it can help and I doubt if it is the duty of any private person to fix his mind on ills which he cannot help. (This may even become an escape from the works of charity we really can do to those we know.)"
And on longtermism, I remember Toby Ord quotes The Abolition of Man in The Precipice about one powerful generation having incredible influence on all future generations (aka the most important century hypothesis). https://theprecipice.com/quotations
Thanks, yes, I agree with the specific context of that quote ("ills which he cannot help"), e.g. certain intractable situations we read about and have no realistic means of improving.
While I wouldn't go as far as claiming all moral systems are consequentialist, I agree that all reasonable moral systems take the consequences of actions into consideration.
I should clarify that not all moral systems acknowledge their consequentialism, but in fact they are. "Do X because Y requires it" is equivalent to "Do X so that not-Y will not happen."
I think the reference to "harmless as doves and wise as serpents" is actually from Matthew 10:16.
https://biblehub.com/matthew/10-16.htm
Yes, that's correct. In my text, "the reference here" refers to the verse shown below that, apologies for any confusion.
Re. "But if we take our enthusiasm for data and analysis too far, we risk becoming judgmental about how others give. Each of us has different gifts."
Somewhere I read this same idea about the "shopping cart test": the idea is not to administer the test on others; the idea is to pass the test ourselves.
On "local causes", here is a CS Lewis quote from a letter to a friend:
"It is one of the evils of rapid diffusion of news that the sorrows of all the world come to us every morning. I think each village was meant to feel pity for its own sick and poor whom it can help and I doubt if it is the duty of any private person to fix his mind on ills which he cannot help. (This may even become an escape from the works of charity we really can do to those we know.)"
And on longtermism, I remember Toby Ord quotes The Abolition of Man in The Precipice about one powerful generation having incredible influence on all future generations (aka the most important century hypothesis). https://theprecipice.com/quotations
Thanks, yes, I agree with the specific context of that quote ("ills which he cannot help"), e.g. certain intractable situations we read about and have no realistic means of improving.
Re. "There’s a hint of what philosophers call consequentialism in this."
All moral systems are consequentialist. They only differ on the question of what consequences matter.
While I wouldn't go as far as claiming all moral systems are consequentialist, I agree that all reasonable moral systems take the consequences of actions into consideration.
I should clarify that not all moral systems acknowledge their consequentialism, but in fact they are. "Do X because Y requires it" is equivalent to "Do X so that not-Y will not happen."