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Reasonable Person Principle

cs.cmu.edu

21–30 of 120 posts

Re: Reasonable Person Principle

#21

Expecting everyone within a group to be reasonable is not reasonable.

No, but it sets a standard of interaction and expectations for how conflict should be dealt with.

"Expecting" everyone within a group to be reasonable is another way of saying: if you are consistently unreasonable, you won't be considered part of the group.

Re: Reasonable Person Principle

#22
What an excellent concise framework for handling interactions in a diverse undivided culture. I'm surprised I've never seen this before.

There WILL be disagreements and conflict because so many things are not objective and there is no rational right answer. Guns, abortion, gender, rights everything has a gambit of perfectly reasonable and acceptable positions along its spectrum. Many of which are contrarian by nature.

We solve this dilemma in one of two ways. Blood and fire until 'they' are gone or learning to live together despite having differing moral structures.

Re: Reasonable Person Principle

#23

Expecting everyone within a group to be reasonable is not reasonable.

No, that's the thing, you all have to expect them to be reasonable. They know this, and its social pressure to actually be reasonable. That's how the whole thing works. And then of course, you forgive someone who for whatever emotional reason cannot be reasonable for some brief time. Because, all human.

Re: Reasonable Person Principle

#25
post #13

I can't tell if this is satire.

I was just going to write that and you beat me to it. Who really would seriously follow this? Possibly the same people who argue passionately about coding standards over being productive? Just struck me as silly.

Re: Reasonable Person Principle

#26
post #2

"The Reasonable Person Principle is part of the unwritten culture of CMU computer science" Hmmmm.

How apt. Here is a principle that tries to define sane communication within a community and espouses flexibility and understanding. A hyperliteral reading of a statement that has a very reasonable interpretation (i.e., that it has been implicitly understood up to the point it was put to writing) is precisely why things like this exist.

We are not debuggers and are expected to look beyond words and grasp intent.

Re: Reasonable Person Principle

#27
post #13

I can't tell if this is satire.

the fact that you can't is itself an indicator as to what has happened in American culture, in general.

I can't tell if you are commenting on him being part of a clueless American culture, in general, or that his quandary is because the aforementioned culture problem.

Re: Reasonable Person Principle

#28

How is 'reasonable' different from 'rational'? And don't both these terms beg the question of ultimate ends and/or values?

A rational person might behave unreasonably if that's what it takes to maximize whatever measure of their own well-being they care about.

Rationality is optimization. Reasonableness is aesthetics.

Re: Reasonable Person Principle

#29

A very clear and cogent overview of a structure. Simple to cite. Pragmatic and practical - I think it's quite a positive to have for an organization. > Not all people share the same model of reasonableness, so disagreements inevitably occur. Under the reasonable person principle, the first thing to do is work it out privately (perhaps in person, since e-mail is known to amplify feelings). Indeed, many people would fi…

Agreed, i've observed both personally and with others that americans tend to get upset when someone tries to move a disagreement into private chat, rather than having a public battle about it; and also tend to follow it up by actions that ensure the disagreement is never resolved.

Re: Reasonable Person Principle

#30
post #13

I can't tell if this is satire.

the fact that you can't is itself an indicator as to what has happened in American culture, in general.

I'm afraid "the common good of the community" and "accepting and accommodating the needs of others" is problematic in today's culture, especially on the campus. What is reasonable if my "need" is to see cisheteronormative orthodoxies quite literally burned down?
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