Anti-Aggression-Principle
Anti-Aggression-Principle (AAP)
Bryan Holtz, September 11, 2005
I finally have come up with a nuanced but succinct Market Liberal alternative to anarcho-libertarianism’s most important piece of bumper-sticker philosophy: the Non-Aggression Principle. As embedded in the LP Pledge, the Non-Aggression Principle (or Zero Aggression Principle) calls for absolute abstinence from the initiation of force. I today christen my alternative the Anti-Aggression Principle, a name whose single use found in a libertarian context by Google or Yahoo was just as a synonym for NAP/ZAP. The AAP says: the role and incidence of aggression in human society is to be minimized. This is precisely equivalent to saying that the role and incidence of liberty in human society is to be maximized.
The challenge here was how to gesture in a short slogan toward the following two ideas:
- It’s more important to minimize aggression than to demand abstinence from it.
- That liberty is the best way to maximize human well-being is a default general principle, rather than inviolable and unquestioned dogma.
The first idea motivates the “Anti” in the AAP’s name, and the word “incidence” in its body. The second idea motivates the word “role” in the body, and references the economic theory of market inefficiency to distinguish between absolute and optimal levels of liberty.
I dispute the premise that the Non-Aggression Principle (or Zero-Aggression Principle) is the essence of libertarianism. I would say that the essence of libertarianism is the Anti-Aggression Principle, which says that the role and incidence of aggression in society is to be minimized. (This is precisely equivalent to saying the role and incidence of liberty in society are to be maximized.)
