Is there a reason all of your examples correspond to strategies in the IPD? Because that seems like a pretty bad framework for thinking about ethics. As an illustration of the inadequacy of the framework, consider what a terrible ethical rule ZAP is. In authorizing the use of violence only in self-defense, it privileges concern for your well-being over that of others to an extreme degree. Perhaps this is a good strategy from a prudential point of view, but it certainly doesn’t seem like remotely the right strategy from a moral point of view. According to ZAP, if I see a thug assaulting a young child, I should refrain from violent intervention. On the other hand, if someone shoves me during an argument in a bar, I should respond with violence.
The problem is that by focusing on the IPD you have restricted the ethical arena to situations where your own reward is at stake. I would think this is precisely the wrong set of circumstances to focus on when developing moral principles. Adam Smith was on to something when he wrote that moral reasoning involves adopting the perspective of an impartial spectator, not the perspective of an agent whose interests are involved in the scenario.
The main interpretations of the ZAP I’ve seen described include the idea of using force when acting in the ‘common defense’ - that it can be reasonable to assume that someone suffering an attack would ask you to defend them if they could.
Another aspect of the ZAP seems to be that when force is initiated against you, then what changes is that you now have the /option/ of using force without moral qualm, not that you are automatically required to use it.
Is there a reason all of your examples correspond to strategies in the IPD? Because that seems like a pretty bad framework for thinking about ethics. As an illustration of the inadequacy of the framework, consider what a terrible ethical rule ZAP is. In authorizing the use of violence only in self-defense, it privileges concern for your well-being over that of others to an extreme degree. Perhaps this is a good strategy from a prudential point of view, but it certainly doesn’t seem like remotely the right strategy from a moral point of view. According to ZAP, if I see a thug assaulting a young child, I should refrain from violent intervention. On the other hand, if someone shoves me during an argument in a bar, I should respond with violence.
The problem is that by focusing on the IPD you have restricted the ethical arena to situations where your own reward is at stake. I would think this is precisely the wrong set of circumstances to focus on when developing moral principles. Adam Smith was on to something when he wrote that moral reasoning involves adopting the perspective of an impartial spectator, not the perspective of an agent whose interests are involved in the scenario.
The main interpretations of the ZAP I’ve seen described include the idea of using force when acting in the ‘common defense’ - that it can be reasonable to assume that someone suffering an attack would ask you to defend them if they could.
Another aspect of the ZAP seems to be that when force is initiated against you, then what changes is that you now have the /option/ of using force without moral qualm, not that you are automatically required to use it.