Andrew Critch defines a conflationary alliance as a situation where multiple groups deliberately use the same term to describe different concepts or behaviors, because the shared terminology helps each group advance their distinct goals. E.g., people have different notions of justice, but they agree that something-called-justice is very good, so they can agree to team up and fight for justice.

In my view, the term "charity", as used in 2024, represents an example of this pattern. As is often the case, the conflationary nature of the term occasionally leads to confusion or conflict, and this underpins many of the debates and public criticism of effective altruism.

When we say ”charity" or “charitable giving", we're actually talking about at least three distinct behaviors:

• Funding public goods through donations
• Supporting one's in-group or collective agency through partial philanthropy
• Pursuing genuinely impartial benefit for others

Each of these behaviors has different [...]

---

Outline:

(01:52) Public Goods Funding

(03:20) Partial Philanthropy

(04:24) Impartial Philanthropy

(06:37) Tensions and Dynamics

(08:57) Implications and Moving Forward

The original text contained 1 footnote which was omitted from this narration.

---

First published:

Source:

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.