Peter_Turney comments on Rationality Quotes 7 - Less Wrong

5 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 25 January 2008 06:00PM

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Comment author: Peter_Turney 25 January 2008 06:34:24PM -2 points [-]

"The simple fact is that non-violent means do not work against Evil."

I believe that this quote is not rational, because thinking of human relations in terms of "good" and "evil" is not rational. I prefer to think in terms of the iterated prisoners' dilemma; in terms of cooperation and defection. If you frame a conflict in terms of "good" and "evil", you quickly reach violence. If you frame it in terms of "cooperation" and "defection", you may be able to negotiate a cooperative agreement. Violence may be necessary in certain situations, but it represents a suboptimal solution to conflict.

In a blog that is dedicated to overcoming bias, the term "evil" should only be used to point out the bias and irrationality that is encouraged by the concept of "evil".