Libertarian Reader (Philosophy and society)

The Libertarian Reader
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Contents:

  • David and Leviathan
  • Libertarianism
  • Looking at the platform
  • Libertarianism Is Very Strange | Boston Review
  • Key Concepts of Libertarianism

    • Such occurrences, known as externalities, are considered market failures in that resources have not been allocated efficiently. To correct such failures and make markets efficient, governments intervene by providing things like courts, roads, police and fire departments, as well as regulations requiring polluters to pay for their environmental damages.

    David and Leviathan

    Other types of market failures are caused when one or a few firms control the price and output of a good or service, or when consumers are not given adequate information to make their purchases, as, for instance, when investors are not sufficiently informed of the risks of their investments. Here again, the solution in most cases is some form of government intervention. Monopolies are broken up. Firms are forced to disclose relevant consumer information.

    The problem for libertarians, and the reason they need to believe that markets are always efficient, is that - according to their platform - they also believe:. The difficulty with this statement is not just that it denies the reality of market inefficiencies. Of greater concern is how drastically it underestimates what is required to protect property rights. Consider, for example, the cost of maintaining a stable, peaceful society - a society in which those who fall on hard times do not threaten the system as a whole.

    Libertarianism

    And also consider this statement from the libertarian platform:. We believe members of society will become even more charitable and civil society will be strengthened as government reduces its activity in this realm. The problem here is that there is simply no evidence that private charity has anywhere near the capacity to alleviate the sort of poverty that confronts many parts of this country.

    Looking at the platform

    The Libertarian Reader: Classic and Contemporary Writings from Lao Tzu to Milton The scope of libertarian philosophy can be overwhelming. The Constitution of Liberty sets out his vision for what a free society respecting. Readers of Toward a Libertarian Society, a collection of his articles from . but still contains a lot of thought provoking material into the libertarian philosophy.

    The more than 40 million people below the poverty line would simply overwhelm organizations like the Red Cross, whose budget is about one th of what the federal government provides for welfare and Medicaid. Natural disasters alone far outstrip the capacity of churches and secular charities.

    The short answer is that the people who do have property might not have it for long. Libertarians hold that some forms of order in society arise naturally and spontaneously from the actions of thousands or millions of individuals. The notion of spontaneous order may seem counterintuitive: it is natural to assume that order exists only because it has been designed by someone indeed, in the philosophy of religion , the apparent order of the natural universe was traditionally considered proof of the existence of an intelligent designer —i.

    Libertarians, however, maintain that the most important aspects of human society—such as language , law , customs, money , and markets—develop by themselves, without conscious direction. Hume extended his analysis to the determination of interest rates and even to the emergence of the institutions of law and property. According to libertarians, free markets are among the most important but not the only examples of spontaneous order. They argue that individuals need to produce and trade in order to survive and flourish and that free markets are essential to the creation of wealth.

    Libertarians also maintain that self-help, mutual aid , charity, and economic growth do more to alleviate poverty than government social-welfare programs.

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    Finally, they contend that, if the libertarian tradition often seems to stress private property and free markets at the expense of other principles, that is largely because these institutions were under attack for much of the 20th century by modern liberals, social democrats, fascists , and adherents of other leftist, nationalist , or socialist ideologies.

    Libertarians consider the rule of law to be a crucial underpinning of a free society. In its simplest form, this principle means that individuals should be governed by generally applicable and publicly known laws and not by the arbitrary decisions of kings, presidents, or bureaucrats. Such laws should protect the freedom of all individuals to pursue happiness in their own ways and should not aim at any particular result or outcome.

    Libertarianism Is Very Strange | Boston Review

    Although most libertarians believe that some form of government is essential for protecting liberty, they also maintain that government is an inherently dangerous institution whose power must be strictly circumscribed. Thus, libertarians advocate limiting and dividing government power through a written constitution and a system of checks and balances. Some American libertarians, such as Lysander Spooner and Murray Rothbard, have opposed all forms of government.

    1. Hilarion the Healer: The Apostle Paul Reborn (Meet the Master).
    2. How charitable can we be?.
    3. Advances in Information and Intelligent Systems.

    Much political analysis deals with conflict and conflict resolution. Libertarians hold that there is a natural harmony of interests among peaceful, productive individuals in a just society.

    Key Concepts of Libertarianism

    Today, Adam Smith is frequently demonized as the patron saint of greed and selfishness, but Moral Sentiments shows that Smith had a nuanced and deep understanding of human nature, our drives for virtue and vice, and the spirit and sympathies that help human beings thrive. This book, published in , was vastly ahead of its time in many fields, foreshadowing later developments in social science, moral philosophy, and social psychology. But it is also packed with deep and practical insights for any student of human nature. The God of the Machine — Isabel Paterson.

    At a time when socialism and fascism were conquering whole continents, Paterson set out a defense of individualism, the free market, and limited government that remains powerful and timely to this day. By tracing the role of individual freedom in the rise and fall of civilizations, the book re-centered the discussion of human history on its true subject: the individual. Legal theorist Lysander Spooner wrote this devastating critique of the U.

    Constitution in It remains one of the most thoughtful and hard-hitting criticisms of the American government and federal power. No Treason is also one of the most quotable individualist anarchist works.

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    In either case, it is unfit to exist. Radicals for Capitalism — Brian Doherty. Radicals for Capitalism is a weighty tome, summarizing centuries of classical liberal and libertarian history in one book.

    Reason magazine senior editor Brian Doherty goes to great lengths to capture the varying influences and factions within the broader libertarian movement. This book is an essential part of any collection on American political history, and friends of liberty will find a lot to learn and enjoy in its eyewitness histories and firsthand accounts of the motley crew that created and compose the modern American libertarian movement.