March 20, 2017

An Ethical Cost Of The Non-Aggression Principle

Suppose you inhabit a world where violent acts occur. You identify the aggression of one person against another as the common trait of those activities. An ethic called the Non-Aggression Principle (NAP) identifies that commonality as behavior which is desirable to oppose.

The identity of the ethic is limited to opposing aggressive behavior.

A necessary ethical cost of opposing aggression is a commitment to knowing if there is aggression, not how there is aggression.

A necessary ethical cost of opposing aggression is a commitment to whatever is without that aggression.

I contend that, by adopting the NAP, a person restricts themself from condescending to the manner in which others behave non-aggressively. To do so is to reject the peace they claim to hold the NAP's values in pursuit of.