Yes, I would make this distinction too. Yet, I submit that few people actually believe, or even say they believe, that the main problems in the world are caused by people being gratuitously or sadistically evil. There are some problems that people would explain this way: violent crime comes to mind. But I don’t think the evil hypothesis is the most common explanation given by non-rationalists for why we have, say, homelessness and poverty.
That is to say that, insofar as the common rationalist refrain of “problems are caused by incentives dammit, not evil people” refers to an actual argument people generally give, it’s probably referring to the argument that people are selfish and greedy. And in that sense, the rationalists and non-rationalists are right: it’s both the system and the actors within it.
Yes, I would make this distinction too. Yet, I submit that few people actually believe, or even say they believe, that the main problems in the world are caused by people being gratuitously or sadistically evil. There are some problems that people would explain this way: violent crime comes to mind. But I don’t think the evil hypothesis is the most common explanation given by non-rationalists for why we have, say, homelessness and poverty.
That is to say that, insofar as the common rationalist refrain of “problems are caused by incentives dammit, not evil people” refers to an actual argument people generally give, it’s probably referring to the argument that people are selfish and greedy. And in that sense, the rationalists and non-rationalists are right: it’s both the system and the actors within it.