Editor: An experiment in applied ethics

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Applying ethical principles to real life is not always straightforward.  For instance, it requires (among other things) hard numerical data and difficult calculations.

Human society is complex.  There are, for example, divergent views on the best economic system, and equally divergent personal values.  And there are //unintended consequences// of humane interventions; e.g., sending food to a famine-stricken nation may put local farmers out of business and prolong the famine.

One example attempt at this problem is charity evaluation.  Organizations such as [[http://www.givewell.org/|GiveWell]] aim to concretely measure what donations would be //effective//.  This dodges some concerns by focusing on immediate benefits, but this means ignoring charities that effect systemic change of greater benefit.  And differences in values may still be relevant.

We are testing a different approach.  The idea of Philozoÿ is that the end user can input what they care about and get as output evaluations based on those values.  These values can span a wide range, from what immediate benefits are worthy, to large-scale social questions.

We start this experiment by focusing on an easier case, helping animals.  Animal society, while not entirely simple, has much less complexity than human society.  Feeding a starving cat will probably not cause inflation in the feline economy.

Thus, this site is a laboratory for the idea of end users specifying their values.  If successful, we can work to extend it to more difficult problems, such as those of human civilization.

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