[Dean's World] Aziz P: atomic principles

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Posted by Aziz P:
atomic principles
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1183123999.shtml


   ([1]cross-posted at City of Brass. Note I've categorized this article
   as "Philosophy" rather than "The War" here at DW.)

   on the [2]origin of the word, atomic, from the Greek atomos:

     In Greek, the prefix "a" means "not" and the word "tomos" means
     cut. Our word atom therefore comes from atomos, a Greek word
     meaning uncuttable.

   the problem with discourse is that we tend to load up our ideas with
   detail. This results in people who might actually share the same
   underlying principles to disagree vociferously on an issue because
   they perceive the other side to be opposed to the common aim. A good
   example is the "not anti-war but on the other side" trope that gets
   bandied about against lefties on the topic of Iraq.

   the way it should work instead is that we articulate the basic -
   "atomic" - principles, and then evaluate policy against them. That
   evaluation can take many forms, though I personally ascribe to the
   methodology that demands that the means by which the desired end is
   achieved match in full the principles and values that defined said
   end. In other words, [3]as I have argued before, the ends do not
   justify the means - and the means actually influence the ends. But
   absolutism on principle is also detrimental to success; perfection is
   the enemy of the good.

   The process of defining principle first, defining end goals in
   accordance with those principles, and then devising means that both
   stay within the boundaries of those means AND (critically) actually
   achieve the desired end, is what I call "principled pragmatism". Part
   of the pragmatism comes from acknowledging that there is tension in
   the criteria for means, between principle and success; finding the
   right policy therefore requires human judgment, and intelligence, and
   knowledge. Only thus can the degree to which the two criteria are
   compromised be minimized. And compromised they inevitably are to some
   extent.

   The above might be more succinctly summarized as,

     principled pragmatism (PP): (a) the means influence the ends, but
     (b) perfection is the enemy of the good.

   Here is where the need for atomic principles comes in. Principles that
   are too detailed ("Bush is Hitler"; "abortion is murder"; "The US is a
   rogue state"; "liberals are objectively pro-terrorist"; "not anti-war,
   but on the other side", etc) result in making it impossible to
   articulate effective policy. In other words, overly specific (and
   dogmatic) principles violate PP(b). Further, policy derived from such
   principles ultimately end up violating PP(a). For the requisite
   degrees of freedom needed to navigate the space of policy and
   principle without violating PP, we must have principles that are
   broader in scope, leaving human judgement and reason in control at the
   implementation level rather than blind obedience to dogma.

   Of course, principle can't be so broad as to be devoid of meaning.
   "evil is bad" comes to mind. There needs to be a targeting of the idea
   towards a specific issue. This is far easier said than done, but the
   guiding light here can again be the "atomic" characteristic. Atomic
   principles literally must serve as building blocks, which can be
   rapidly assembled into more complex structures.

   On [4]Plato's theory of atomism:

     Plato's Timaeus ... elaborates an account of the world wherein the
     four different basic kinds of matterâearth, air, fire, and water â
     are regular solids composed from plane figures: isoceles and
     scalene right-angled triangles.

   What atomic principles might we articulate, then? Remember, these are
   principles, not axioms; disagreement is inevitable, and even
   beneficial! In the context of recent events, here are some I start
   with:

   - Direct military intervention, including ground troops, are a moral
   obligation upon nations with the capability thereof, with regards to
   ongoing genocide and massacres.

   - "With great power comes great responsibility" applies to nations as
   well as men; lack of direct self-interest in either case is not
   sufficient to excuse inaction.

   - Regime change can not succeed if driven primarily by foreign
   military intervention.

   - Democracy is an end-product of liberalization, not an initial
   condition.

   Upon these axioms, rest pretty much my entire opposition to the
   specific implementation of the Iraq War by the present Administration,
   my support for almost all the Democratic presidential candidates over
   any GOP counterpart, and my increasingly weakening stance on
   maintaining a sizable troop contingent in Iraq for any length of time
   (though on the latter point, I still am against "withdrawal" as
   preferentially defined by the mainstream left). But disagreement on
   these issues of policy is far less fruitful than disagreement on the
   atomic principles above.
     _________________________________________________________________

   Incidentally, this essay more rightly belonged at [5]Nation-Building
   blog, but Google robots have declared it to be a spamblog and thus it
   has been suspended pending review. I don't know how long that will
   take or even whether it will turn out in my favor but I do hope that 4
   years of blogging there aren't consigned to /dev/null. My fate is in
   Google's hands. This was the final straw; I will be moving City of
   Brass off Blogger and cease using blogger entirely in the near future.

   Related essay: [6]the means influence the ends at City of Brass

References

   1. http://cityofbrass.blogspot.com/2007/06/atomic-principles.html
   2. http://www.physlink.com/Education/AskExperts/ae622.cfm
   3. http://cityofbrass.blogspot.com/2004/02/means-influence-ends.html
   4. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/atomism-ancient/
   5. http://dean2004.blogspot.com/
   6. http://cityofbrass.blogspot.com/2004/02/means-influence-ends.html