Here’s my tentative answer to this question. It’s just a dump of some half-baked ideas, but I’d nevertheless be curious to see some comments on them. This should not be read as a definite statement of my positions, but merely as my present direction of thinking on the subject.
Most interactions between humans are too complex to be described with any accuracy using deontological rules or consequentialist/utilitarian spherical-cow models. Neither of these approaches is capable of providing any practical guidelines for human action that wouldn’t be trivial, absurd, or just sophistical propaganda for the attitudes that the author already holds for other reasons. (One possible exception are economic interactions in which spherical-cow models based on utility functions make reasonably accurate predictions, and sometimes even give correct non-trivial guidelines for action.)
However, we can observe that humans interact in practice using an elaborate network of tacit agreements. These can be seen as Schelling points, so that interactions between people run harmoniously as long as these points are recognized and followed, and conflict ensues when there is a failure to recognize and agree on such a point, or someone believes he can profit from an aggressive intrusion beyond some such point. Recognition of these points is a complex matter, determined by everything from genetics to culture to momentary fashion, and they can be more or less stable and of greater or lesser importance (i.e. overstepping some of them is seen as a trivial annoyance, while on the other extreme, overstepping certain others gives the other party a licence to kill). These points include all the more or less formally stated social and legal norms, property claims, and all the countless other more or less important expectations that we believe we reasonably hold against each other.
So, here is my basic idea: being a virtuous person means recognizing the existing Schelling points correctly, drawing and communicating those points whose exact location depends on you skillfully and prudently—and once they’ve been drawn, committing yourself to defend them relentlessly (so that hopefully, nobody will even see overstepping them at your disadvantage as potentially profitable). An ideal virtuous man by this definition, capable of practical wisdom to make the best possible judgments and determined to respect the others’s lines and defend his own ones, would therefore have the greatest practical likelihood of living his life in harmony and having all his business run smoothly, no matter what his station in life.
A society of such virtuous people would also make possible a higher level of voluntary benevolence in the form of friendship, charity, hospitality, mutual aid, etc., since one could count on others not to exploit maliciously a benevolent attempt at lowering one’s guard on crucially important lines and trying to base human relationships on lines that are more relaxed and pleasant, but harder to defend if push comes to shove. For example, it makes sense to be hospitable if you’re living among people whom you know to be determined not to take advantage of your hospitality, or to be merciful and forgiving if you can be reasonably sure that people’s transgressions are unusual lapses of judgment unlikely to be repeated, rather than due to a persistent malevolent strategy. Thus, in a society populated by virtuous people, it makes sense to apply the label of virtuousness also to characteristics such as charity, friendliness, mercy, hospitality, etc. (but only to the point where one doesn’t let oneself be exploited for them!).
This also seems to clarify the trolley problem-like situations, when we observe that actions that involve your own Schelling boundaries are more important to you than others. You may feel sorry for the folks who will die, perhaps to the point where you’d sacrifice yourself to save them (but perhaps not if this leaves your own kids as poor orphans, since your existing network of tacit agreements involves caring for them). However, pushing the fat man means overstepping the most important and terrible of all Schelling boundaries—that which defines unprovoked deadly aggression against one’s person, and whose violation gives the attacked party the licence to kill you in self-defense. Violating this boundary is such an extreme step that it may be seen as far more drastic than passively witnessing multiple deaths of people in a manner than doesn’t violate any tacit agreements and expectations. (Note though that this perspective is distinct from pure egoism: the tacit agreements in question include a certain limited level of altruism, like e.g. helping a stranger in an emergency, at least by calling 911.)
You may view all this virtue talk as consequentialism with respect to the immensely complex network of Schelling points between humans, which takes into account higher-level game-theoretical consequences of actions, which are more important than the factors covered by the usual utilitarian spherical-cow models. Yet this system is far too complex to allow for any simple model based on utility functions or anything similar. At most, we can formulate advice aimed at individuals on how to make judgments based on the relations that concern them personally in some way and are within their own sphere of accurate comprehension—and the best practical advice that can be formulated basically boils down to some form of virtue ethics.
So, basically, that would be my half-baked summary. I’m curious if anyone thinks that this might make some sense.
Not only does it make sense, I think it’s the most descriptively-accurate summary of how people in the real world act that I’ve seen, which makes it a valuable tool for mapping the territory. I’d love to see it as a top-level post, if you could take the time. I don’t think you’d even have to add much.
It makes plenty of sense to point out that the Schelling points and the associated cooperative customs point to a set of virtues. But it isn’t just consequentialists who can make this point. Some varieties of deontology can do so as well. Habermas’s discourse ethics is one example. Thomas Scanlon’s ethics is another. From the Habermas wiki:
Habermas extracts the following principle of universalization (U), which is the condition every valid norm has to fulfill:
(U) All affected can accept the consequences and the side effects that [the norm’s] general observance can be anticipated to have for the satisfaction of everyone’s interests, and the consequences are preferred to those of known alternative possibilities for regulation. (Habermas, 1991:65)
One can easily understand the “norms” as tacit (or explicit) agreements, existing or proposed. A society reasoning together along those lines would probably look similar in many ways to one reasoning along utilitarian lines, but the root pattern of justification would differ. The utilitarian justification aggregates interests; the deontologist (of Habermas’s sort) justification considers each person’s interests separately, compatible with like consideration for others.
Friedman uses Schelling points in an attempt to explain the origin of the concept of property rights among humans and the associated legal and social norms, but the approach can be generalized in an obvious way to a much wider class of relations between people (basically anything that could hypothetically lead to a conflict, in the broadest possible sense of the term).
Here’s my tentative answer to this question. It’s just a dump of some half-baked ideas, but I’d nevertheless be curious to see some comments on them. This should not be read as a definite statement of my positions, but merely as my present direction of thinking on the subject.
Most interactions between humans are too complex to be described with any accuracy using deontological rules or consequentialist/utilitarian spherical-cow models. Neither of these approaches is capable of providing any practical guidelines for human action that wouldn’t be trivial, absurd, or just sophistical propaganda for the attitudes that the author already holds for other reasons. (One possible exception are economic interactions in which spherical-cow models based on utility functions make reasonably accurate predictions, and sometimes even give correct non-trivial guidelines for action.)
However, we can observe that humans interact in practice using an elaborate network of tacit agreements. These can be seen as Schelling points, so that interactions between people run harmoniously as long as these points are recognized and followed, and conflict ensues when there is a failure to recognize and agree on such a point, or someone believes he can profit from an aggressive intrusion beyond some such point. Recognition of these points is a complex matter, determined by everything from genetics to culture to momentary fashion, and they can be more or less stable and of greater or lesser importance (i.e. overstepping some of them is seen as a trivial annoyance, while on the other extreme, overstepping certain others gives the other party a licence to kill). These points include all the more or less formally stated social and legal norms, property claims, and all the countless other more or less important expectations that we believe we reasonably hold against each other.
So, here is my basic idea: being a virtuous person means recognizing the existing Schelling points correctly, drawing and communicating those points whose exact location depends on you skillfully and prudently—and once they’ve been drawn, committing yourself to defend them relentlessly (so that hopefully, nobody will even see overstepping them at your disadvantage as potentially profitable). An ideal virtuous man by this definition, capable of practical wisdom to make the best possible judgments and determined to respect the others’s lines and defend his own ones, would therefore have the greatest practical likelihood of living his life in harmony and having all his business run smoothly, no matter what his station in life.
A society of such virtuous people would also make possible a higher level of voluntary benevolence in the form of friendship, charity, hospitality, mutual aid, etc., since one could count on others not to exploit maliciously a benevolent attempt at lowering one’s guard on crucially important lines and trying to base human relationships on lines that are more relaxed and pleasant, but harder to defend if push comes to shove. For example, it makes sense to be hospitable if you’re living among people whom you know to be determined not to take advantage of your hospitality, or to be merciful and forgiving if you can be reasonably sure that people’s transgressions are unusual lapses of judgment unlikely to be repeated, rather than due to a persistent malevolent strategy. Thus, in a society populated by virtuous people, it makes sense to apply the label of virtuousness also to characteristics such as charity, friendliness, mercy, hospitality, etc. (but only to the point where one doesn’t let oneself be exploited for them!).
This also seems to clarify the trolley problem-like situations, when we observe that actions that involve your own Schelling boundaries are more important to you than others. You may feel sorry for the folks who will die, perhaps to the point where you’d sacrifice yourself to save them (but perhaps not if this leaves your own kids as poor orphans, since your existing network of tacit agreements involves caring for them). However, pushing the fat man means overstepping the most important and terrible of all Schelling boundaries—that which defines unprovoked deadly aggression against one’s person, and whose violation gives the attacked party the licence to kill you in self-defense. Violating this boundary is such an extreme step that it may be seen as far more drastic than passively witnessing multiple deaths of people in a manner than doesn’t violate any tacit agreements and expectations. (Note though that this perspective is distinct from pure egoism: the tacit agreements in question include a certain limited level of altruism, like e.g. helping a stranger in an emergency, at least by calling 911.)
You may view all this virtue talk as consequentialism with respect to the immensely complex network of Schelling points between humans, which takes into account higher-level game-theoretical consequences of actions, which are more important than the factors covered by the usual utilitarian spherical-cow models. Yet this system is far too complex to allow for any simple model based on utility functions or anything similar. At most, we can formulate advice aimed at individuals on how to make judgments based on the relations that concern them personally in some way and are within their own sphere of accurate comprehension—and the best practical advice that can be formulated basically boils down to some form of virtue ethics.
So, basically, that would be my half-baked summary. I’m curious if anyone thinks that this might make some sense.
Not only does it make sense, I think it’s the most descriptively-accurate summary of how people in the real world act that I’ve seen, which makes it a valuable tool for mapping the territory. I’d love to see it as a top-level post, if you could take the time. I don’t think you’d even have to add much.
It makes plenty of sense to point out that the Schelling points and the associated cooperative customs point to a set of virtues. But it isn’t just consequentialists who can make this point. Some varieties of deontology can do so as well. Habermas’s discourse ethics is one example. Thomas Scanlon’s ethics is another. From the Habermas wiki:
One can easily understand the “norms” as tacit (or explicit) agreements, existing or proposed. A society reasoning together along those lines would probably look similar in many ways to one reasoning along utilitarian lines, but the root pattern of justification would differ. The utilitarian justification aggregates interests; the deontologist (of Habermas’s sort) justification considers each person’s interests separately, compatible with like consideration for others.
I have no idea what a Schelling point is, but the rest of it makes enough sense that I don’t think I’m missing too much—thanks for the explanation!
I recommend this article by David Friedman on the topic—if you’ve never heard of the concept, you’ll probably find lots of interesting insight in it:
http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Academic/Property/Property.html
Friedman uses Schelling points in an attempt to explain the origin of the concept of property rights among humans and the associated legal and social norms, but the approach can be generalized in an obvious way to a much wider class of relations between people (basically anything that could hypothetically lead to a conflict, in the broadest possible sense of the term).
I’m curious, has anyone accused you of being Steve Rayhawk yet?