Moral & Political Concepts

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Abstractions about ethical dilemmas and political-social arrangements, spanning moral thought experiments (drowning child analogy, lesser of two evils principle, Mandeville's paradox), political governance concepts (patrimonialism, political freedom, religious cleansing), and welfare-incentive dilemmas (Samaritan's dilemma, luxury belief, relational goods).

9 abstractions in this family — domain-specific abstractions that sit near one another in structural-signature space (k-means over structural-signature embeddings). Each is shown with its short description.

• Drowning child analogy — Singer raises a drowning child analogy in his essay: inaction is clearly immoral if a child is drowning in a shallow pond and someone can save them but chooses not to.
• Lesser of two evils principle — The lesser of two evils principle, also referred to as the lesser evil principle and lesser-evilism, is the ethical principle that, when faced with selecting from two immoral options, the less immoral one should be chosen.
• Luxury belief — A luxury belief is a status-signaling social or political belief said to impose little cost on affluent adherents while shifting substantial costs onto less privileged people.
• Mandeville's paradox — Mandeville's paradox is named after Bernard Mandeville (1670–1733), who posits that actions which may be qualified as vicious with regard to individuals have benefits for society as a whole.
• Patrimonialism — Patrimonialism is a form of governance in which the ruler governs on the basis of personal loyalties which are derived from patron-client relations, personal allegiances, kin ties, and combinations thereof.
• Political freedom — Political freedom, also called political autonomy or political agency, is a central concept in history and political thought and one of the most important features of democratic societies.
• Relational goods — Relational goods are non-material goods that can only be produced and consumed within groups, and which are intrinsically linked to relationships and interaction.
• Religious cleansing — "Religious cleansing" is sometimes used in reference to the removal of a population from a certain territory based on its religion.
• Samaritan's dilemma — The Samaritan's dilemma arises when assistance intended to improve a recipient's welfare weakens incentives for self-provision, creating dependence or strategically greater need.