billswift comments on Why Does Power Corrupt? - Less Wrong

28 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 14 October 2008 12:23AM

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Comment author: billswift 14 October 2008 07:24:31AM 1 point [-]

Part of the disagreements above are caused by there being five different kinds of power. Three are inherently ethical, that is in the way the power is gained, not its use; the other two, which are more commonly thought of as power are inherently unethical. (I am using power in the sense of ability to get things done; some libertarians make the error of equating power with coercion, which limits it.)

The unethical forms are politico-religious (fraud) where you trick people into serving your ends and politico-criminal (force) where you coerce them. The other three are love or shared ends, as David Friedman discussed in the chapter "Love Is Not Enough" in "Machinery of Freedom", economic power where you pay others to do what you want done, and personal power where you do it yourself.