Indeed; unknown has a good point. It’s perfectly possible for violence to be the only action which will avert terrible outcomes, and it’s perfectly possible for violence to not lead to further violence. As for
“A rule of human rationality becomes flat when the probability [expected utility] of falsely perceiving an exception to the rule, vastly exceeds the probability [expected utility] of ending up in a real-world situation where it genuinely makes sense to violate the rule.”
why do special rules need to be invented here? A rational agent should already be taking into account the possibility that they’ve got it wrong. It is still perfectly possible that, after having taken into account one’s own fallibility, and the possibility that violence will lead to more violence, that some kind of limited aggressive action is still the best thing to do.
In fact you might even call “violence is never, ever the answer” an applause light. How frequently does one hear that phrase followed by applause, and how many people actually follow it?
Indeed; unknown has a good point. It’s perfectly possible for violence to be the only action which will avert terrible outcomes, and it’s perfectly possible for violence to not lead to further violence. As for
“A rule of human rationality becomes flat when the probability [expected utility] of falsely perceiving an exception to the rule, vastly exceeds the probability [expected utility] of ending up in a real-world situation where it genuinely makes sense to violate the rule.”
why do special rules need to be invented here? A rational agent should already be taking into account the possibility that they’ve got it wrong. It is still perfectly possible that, after having taken into account one’s own fallibility, and the possibility that violence will lead to more violence, that some kind of limited aggressive action is still the best thing to do.
In fact you might even call “violence is never, ever the answer” an applause light. How frequently does one hear that phrase followed by applause, and how many people actually follow it?