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DTSTAMP:20260727T165615Z
DESCRIPTION:This work-in-progress seminar will feature “In Defense of Timid
 ity”\, a paper about effective altruism and longtermism by Keven Bisson\, 
 a PhD student in the Department of Philosophy at McGill. The seminar will 
 feature a short conference about the paper\, followed by a Q&A discussion.
 \n\nPlease read the paper prior to the WIP session.\n\nRead the paper: “In
  Defense of Timidity”\n\nAbstract\n\nLongtermism is the view that individu
 als and societies ought to prioritize interventions focusing on long-term 
 consequences like mitigating existential risks. Longtermism is supported b
 y the argument showing that long-term projects have a much higher expected
  value than short-term projects.\n\nThe comparison faces an issue arising 
 when prospects having tiny probabilities of vast payoffs (long-term prospe
 cts) have a greater expected value than prospects having a significant pro
 bability of a modest payoff (short-term prospects). The prospect with a ti
 ny probability is intuitively so unlikely that it cannot be preferable eve
 n if it has a higher expected value even though its has a much higher expe
 cted value.\n\nThere are two plausible views on this issue: recklessness (
 favouring long-term prospects) and timidity (favouring short-term prospect
 s). Both views face many crucial objections.\n\nI defend timidity by expos
 ing the three main objections to recklessness and adding two new objection
 s. I then present and respond to timidity's three most significant objecti
 ons. I argue that a timid discounting view with a range threshold answers 
 two objections and that the last objection can be answered with a slight m
 odification of the discounting.\n\nI conclude that if timidity is true\, l
 ongtermism does not hold for individual contributions as their contributio
 n for the long-term is discountable. Only societies could have a longtermi
 st duty.\n
DTSTART:20240130T180000Z
DTEND:20240130T190000Z
LOCATION:Room 927\, Leacock Building\, CA\, QC\, Montreal\, H3A 2T7\, 855\,
  rue Sherbrooke Ouest
SUMMARY:Work-in-Progress Session: “In Defense of Timidity”- Effective Altru
 ism and Longtermism
URL:https://www.mcgill.ca/jarislowsky-chair/channels/event/work-progress-se
 ssion-defense-timidity-effective-altruism-and-longtermism-354498
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