Seeking ethical rules-of-thumb for comparison

don't be a dick, don't forget to be awesome, and don't trust the skull.

Proportional Force. Aim for the least amount of violence to be done

Why? It seems more rational to exert enough force to eliminate the threat forever without creating new ones.

Keep in mind that when asked for good cached wisdom, people tend to prioritize showing off their cleverness over giving useful advise.

"Check consequentialism" seems like a useful thing to do in most situations. What outcomes can you expect from aggression vs. nonviolence, and which is preferred in the particular situation?

Is there a reason all of your examples correspond to strategies in the IPD? Because that seems like a pretty bad framework for thinking about ethics. As an illustration of the inadequacy of the framework, consider what a terrible ethical rule ZAP is. In authorizing the use of violence only in self-defense, it privileges concern for your well-being over that of others to an extreme degree. Perhaps this is a good strategy from a prudential point of view, but it certainly doesn't seem like remotely the right strategy from a moral point of view. According to ZAP, if I see a thug assaulting a young child, I should refrain from violent intervention. On the other hand, if someone shoves me during an argument in a bar, I should respond with violence.

The problem is that by focusing on the IPD you have restricted the ethical arena to situations where your own reward is at stake. I would think this is precisely the wrong set of circumstances to focus on when developing moral principles. Adam Smith was on to something when he wrote that moral reasoning involves adopting the perspective of an impartial spectator, not the perspective of an agent whose interests are involved in the scenario.

If your opinion of a person or character would go down for doing something in your place, don't do it.

If doing something will probably lead to an outcome that feels wrong, don't do it.

The latter takes very slight precedence over the former. If doing something is likely to lead to the opposite of either of these, do it.

This is really the only concept of morality that applies to me. It has the effect of making typically amoral actions justifiable if done in a likeable enough manner, and traditionally moral acts despicable if committed in a particularly pretentious or otherwise obnoxious way.

The most fundamental rule of thumb, the best overall guideline:

Play tit-for-tat.

That is, on the first encounter cooperate, and from then on scrupulously cooperate or defect as per the other's last move. Advice for this rule would be to take some time to ensure you communicate your cooperation moves clearly (make sure the other knows you're cooperating when you're cooperating, and let them figure out defect moves by themselves).

Evaluate consequences at multiple orders of abstraction.

Some people evaluate only in the concrete in your face anecdote. Some people evaluate only from a God's eye perspective. Evaluate at multiple levels, and see if they agree.

Have less confidence the higher your level of abstractions go.

Maybe the overarching principle is a good one, but your ability to make accurate generalizations is less than your ability to determine whether being smashed in the head with a hammer will be unpleasant.

Along these lines, have respect for your own ignorance.

Always ask whether it's likely you have enough information and experience to be confident in your answer. For any hypothesis testing problem, include the hypothesis "I don't know what I'm talking about", and take it seriously.

I think that despite the fact they're based on repetiiton, ZAP and proportional both tend towards being too much based on individual cases rather than interaction with other [i]people[/i]. I think what people should (and often do) do is more based on their longer term experience of the other person, or sometimes other people in the same situation.

So I find it's good to assume cooperation with most of the people, most of the time, especially when you can clearly signal that you are taking that approach, and helpful to forgive rather than punish (I should add the proviso I'm psychologically inclined to this approach anyway, and therefore biased). However, with some people and sometimes with people I have stereotyped as a certain 'kind' (e.g. 'jocks') or people in a certain situation (e.g. 'on London public transport') I assume less cooperation from the beginning.

PS: have you considered the virtue ethics approach? I.e. 'do what a person who was like X would do' or 'act like the generous man would act' etc.

Go meta. If that doesn't work, go meta. If it does work, go meta. (This is especially useful for ethics but applies everywhere.)

You are not disturbed by things, but by the impressions you have of those things.

I'm hoping to learn of rules-of-thumb which are at least as useful as the ZAP; I know and respect certain people who base their own ethics on the ZAP, but reject the idea of proportional force, and am hoping to learn of additional alternatives so I can have a better idea of the range of available options.

ZAP describes my own ethics. Proportional force is situational. Sometimes more than proportional force is the most useful approach. Especially when "that which does not kill him makes him stronger".

Make new mistakes.

• Don't derive rules for your everyday life from carefully designed mathematical problems like IPD, especially not ethical rules.

• Don't assume that labels used in a mathematical context correspond to what they're usually applied to in non-mathematical contexts.

If it has fur, it might have rabies.