Hedging Our Bets: Is Moral Uncertainty a Reason to Support Multiple Causes?

Lecture by Christian Tarsney, organized by the Centre for Philosophy, Politics and Economics

Even if we judge that one cause area (like animal welfare or AI alignment) is more important than any other, many of us still feel some inclination to “diversify,” spreading our donations or effort across several high-value causes. One consideration that intuitively supports cause diversification is normative uncertainty: Because I might be wrong about basic value questions (e.g., the moral status of non-human animals or distant future generations), putting all my effort into a single cause area means that I might end up doing no good at all. But is normative uncertainty a good reason to diversify? In this talk, I explore four reasons why it might be: (continue reading...)