Tommy Lee: Plato’s Cave and Spreading Awareness of Effective Altruism

December 2019

One important aspect of humanity that we so often disregard in our pursuit of knowledge is self-awareness-in other words, the ability to think about our thoughts. We often underestimate our ability to distort reality and rationalize it in a way that adheres to our perception of the world, often without considering whether our perception of the world is correct or not. If introduced to a piece of information that does not adhere to this perception, the acceptance-if even present-is often not very graceful. Plato’s cave perfectly represents this idea, where if our reality is built on what the shadows portray, we will not take kindly to the information that shatters our reality regardless of whether it better reflects the objective truth or not.

What does this mean in the context of Effective Altruism? Simply put, it raises the question of how others will take into consideration the ideas of effective altruism. Effective altruism introduces a new paradigm of how one should go about addressing the myriad of issues that continue to plague the Earth. The core of effective altruism is perhaps most aptly put by Steven Pinker, who says, “Effective — efforts that actually help people rather than making you feel good or helping you show off — is one of the great new ideas of the 21st century.” While it seems presumptuous of me to assume that there will be people who do not assimilate the idea of effective altruism into their reality-especially since I have no basis on this assumption due to my ignorance of their perception of the world-there is evidence to suggest that most people, including professionals, often have rather inaccurate ideas and predictions regarding the very issues that effective altruism attempts to address. Regarding this idea, Hans Rosling in his book “Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think” gives a great outline of some of these inaccuracies.

Proceeding with the fundamental base defined by awareness of the ignorance in other people, we can proceed with the implications. In one’s attempt to assimilate the concept of Effective Altruism into their reality, there exists three possible results: first, the person accepts the principles of Effective Altruism as is; second, the person accepts the principles of Effective Altruism, but in the process distorts the principles to better adhere to their perception of the world; third, the person refuses to accept the principles of Effective Altruism. Among the three possible responses, two of them are unfavorable towards the cause of Effective Altruism. This means that when spreading awareness for Effective Altruism, we must keep in mind that the odds are not in our favor—people are more likely to misunderstand the principles of Effective Altruism or disregard them entirely.

In addressing this issue, Eric Herboso’s article “A Defense of Normality” can be examined. Eric does a fantastic job of explaining how one should incorporate Effective Altruism effectively, touching upon the topic of marketability in doing so. The core idea of this article is that marketable individual sustainable effort is a crucial variable that one should address as an Effective Altruist. This idea can address the issue of potential misunderstandings or disregard of the Effective Altruism principles—to attempt to strike a balance in one’s life to the point where it is marketable but also doing good. When spreading awareness of Effective Altruism, we should do so in a way that reflects the entirety of the spectrum, not just the most lenient or extreme forms of Effective Altruism, to reduce the risks of misunderstanding and/or disregard of Effective Altruism as well as lower the point of entry—essentially killing two birds with one stone.