From the monthly archives: August 2011

Civic Virtue without Politics

By On August 31, 2011 · 22 Comments · In Liberalism

I’ve read that the archaic Greeks had a narrow view of courage. They thought courage was a virtue that could only be expressed by a man in war. We’ve made moral progress since then. We now understand that courage is about an appropriate willingness to confront risk and danger. Courage can be exercised anywhere (not [...]

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Libertarians In Jackboots?

By On August 30, 2011 · 52 Comments · In Left-libertarianism, Libertarianism

Michael Lind’s recent article accusing libertarianism of being inherently pro-autocracy conflates two different issues. He notes that libertarians have often been skeptical of majoritarian democracy; he also notes that libertarians have sometimes said nice things about certain autocracies. Both of these claims are true, but they are much less closely related than Lind [...]

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“What are you going to do with your gun?”

By On August 30, 2011 · 27 Comments · In Book/Article Reviews, Libertarianism, Social Justice

The most recent issue of The Atlantic has a fascinating article by Adam Winkler on “The Secret History of Guns.”  It’s worth reading in its entirety, but I was especially impressed by Winkler’s account of the role played by the Black Panthers in opposing gun control in the late 1960s.  The article [...]

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Engaging—Just Not Radical

By On August 29, 2011 · 5 Comments · In Book/Article Reviews

Gillespie, Nick, and Welch, Matt. The Declaration of Independents: How Libertarian Politics Can Fix What’s Wrong with America. New York: PublicAffairs 2011. Pp. xvi, 266. Index. 978-1-58648-938-0.

The Declaration of Independents is a breezy, entertaining manifesto. Defending “libertarian politics,” Reason’s Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch make clear that they’re for decision-making that’s [...]

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Libertarianism and the Civil War

By On August 29, 2011 · 53 Comments · In Academic Philosophy, Current Events, Liberalism, Libertarianism, Liberty, Rights Theory

A number of commentators to my previous post (to my surprise) agree with Rothbard’s view that the American Civil War was unjust.  They support this claim with a variety of arguments. Some claim that, as a matter of historical fact, Lincoln didn’t care about slavery but only about keeping the Union [...]

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Libertarian Wars

By On August 27, 2011 · 65 Comments · In Academic Philosophy, Current Events, Liberalism, Libertarianism, Liberty

Libertarians are opposed to war.  They see war as a terrifying and self-serving exercise of state power.  As Murray Rothbard put it in 1994: war is “an instrument for the aggrandizement of State power over the health, the lives, and the prosperity, of their subject citizens and social institutions.” Rothbard was not a [...]

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The Freeman Against State Capitalism

By On August 26, 2011 · 5 Comments · In Left-libertarianism, Libertarianism, Social Justice

Bleeding-Heart Libertarians might find a great deal of potential interest in the upcoming month’s issue of The Freeman: Ideas on Liberty. I mention this partly for selfish (or at least self-promotional) reasons; one of the articles there — The Many Monopolies — is an article of mine. But if I’m [...]

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The (Philosophical) Battle of Seattle: CFP for the Molinari Society Spring 2012 Symposium, “Explorations in Philosophical Anarchy (II)”

By On August 23, 2011 · 2 Comments · In Academic Philosophy, Left-libertarianism

The Molinari Society is calling for papers. Your papers.

In what may be of some interest to philosophically-inclined Bleeding Heart Libertarians: the Molinari Society (of which I am a member; hence the blurbing) is holding a session in conjunction with the APA Pacific Division meeting in Seattle, April 4-7, 2012. (The [...]

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I’m Against Free Trade Agreements Because I’m For Free Trade

By On August 22, 2011 · 56 Comments · In Left-libertarianism, Social Justice

A while ago at BHL, Andrew Cohen took notice of a New York Times article on some recent political compromises in the U.S. that might speed the passage of three proposed “free trade” agreements (with South Korea, Colombia and Panama). Andrew takes notice of one of the provisions of the agreements — that [...]

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Libertarian Anticapitalism

By On August 18, 2011 · 92 Comments · In Exploitation, Left-libertarianism, Libertarianism, Social Justice

For most of the 20th century, American libertarians were mostly seen as — and mostly saw themselves as — defenders of capitalism. Was that an accurate view of 20th century libertarians were about? If accurate, is that a good thing about libertarianism, or a defect that should be amended and avoided?

Well, it depends. Specifically, [...]

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