Latest update: 22 April 2024
Years ago, I compiled a list of writings by members of the EA community focused on fields and movements of interest to EA. The list seems to have spread organically and every couple of months someone messages me with comments or questions about it. Although the list is probably incomplete, it seems sufficiently comprehensive to justify publication on the EA Forum. Please let me know, by contacting me or leaving a comment, if you notice any omissions.
An Appendix to the post highlights some fields and movements that might be useful to investigate but have so far received little or no EA attention.
The list
American geriatrics
- Muehlhauser (2017) Some case studies in early field growth
Animal rights movement
- Clifton (2016) Lessons from the history of animal rights
- Muehlhauser (2017) Some case studies in early field growth
Anti-abortion movement
Anti-death-penalty movement
Anti-nuclear movement
Antislavery movement
- Animal Charity Evaluators (2018) The British antislavery movement and the abolition of the slave trade in 1807
- Anthis & Anthis (2017) Social movement lessons from the British antislavery movement
- Mauricio (2020) What helped the voiceless? Historical case studies
Behavioral economics
- Stafforini (2018) Behavioral economics
Bioethics
- Muehlhauser (2017) Some case studies in early field growth
Children's rights
- Animal Charity Evaluators (2018) Children's rights
Christianity
- Vallinder (2018) The rise of early Christianity
Confucianism
- Vallinder (2018) Confucius vs Mozi
Conservative legal movement
- Muehlhauser (2017) Some case studies in early field growth
Cryonics
- Muehlhauser (2017) Some case studies in early field growth
Effective philanthropy
- Cold Button Issues (2022) Before there was effective altruism, there was effective philanthropy
Environmentalism
- Animal Charity Evaluators (2018) Environmentalism
- Carlsmith (2018) What can the existential risk community learn from environmentalism?
- Mauricio (2020) What helped the voiceless? Historical case studies
- Muehlhauser (2017) Some case studies in early field growth
Evidence-based medicine
- Hadshar (2018) Evidence-based medicine
Fabianism
- Alexander (2018) Book review: History of the Fabian Society
Fair trade
- Harris (2021) Social movement lessons from the fair trade movement
Fat acceptance movement
- Lueke (2018) Fat activism
General semantics
- Sempere (2019) Why do social movements fail: Two concrete examples
Marriage equality
Mohism
- Vallinder (2018) Confucius vs Mozi
Molecular nanotechnology
- Muehlhauser (2017) Some case studies in early field growth
Neoliberalism
- Muehlhauser (2017) Some case studies in early field growth
- Vaughan (2016) What the EA community can learn from the rise of the neoliberals
New atheism
- Alexander (2017) How did new atheism fail so miserably?
Prisoner human rights movement
Rationalist movement
Scientific charity movement
- Kaufman (2016) Scientific charity movement
Spanish Enlightenment
- Sempere (2019) Why do social movements fail: Two concrete examples
Appendix
Some fields and movements EAs may want to study more:
- Chartism
- Civil rights movement
- Cognitive revolution
- Communism
- The Cypherpunks
- Efficiency movement
- Evolutionary psychology
- Experimental philosophy
- FIRE movement[1]
- Georgism
- Global justice movement
- Life extension
- Marxism
- Objectivism
- Open science (esp. open access and open source)
- Operations Research[2]
- Philosophical radicals
- Positivism
- Technocracy movement
- Temperance movement
- Utopian socialism
- Women rights movement
- World federalism
- Zionism
See also this list by Luke Muehlhauser.
- ^
See this comment by Tyner for an explanation of why this movement may be worth studying.
- ^
See this post by wesg for some background.
This sounds interesting, though I feel slightly confused. I can see why socialism would be a useful thing to know about, but not why it's so much more interesting and useful than, e.g., neoliberalism. I'd also be pretty interested to hear more about how it relates to EA's historical and cultural influences. I guess you're right that I don't even know what the right questions to ask about this are.
If this work is as important as you say here then it seems like a lot of value is being left on the table. Seems like it would be really helpful if you could write out a few bullet points of what needs to be done to get to that stage and how others might be able to help, then reach out to EA Funds or someone else with a proposal.