From the monthly archives: February 2012
Property, Liberty, and the Deserving Poor
By Matt Zwolinski On February 7, 2012 · 15 Comments · In Academic Philosophy, Book/Article Reviews, Current Events, Libertarianism
Despite the exciting title, I suppose this is really just an overblown links post. First, a couple of (relative) quickies:
First, Terrance Tomkow has an interesting post on “The Origins of Property.” It draws on some of his earlier posts on “The Retributive Theory of Property” and, more generally, [...]
The Good in the Contract: A Reply to Will
By Kevin Vallier On February 7, 2012 · 7 Comments · In Academic Philosophy, Libertarianism, Rights Theory
Our discussion of the connection between eudaimonism, contractualism and libertarianism continues, and now good ole’ Will Wilkinson has joined it. Will makes two basic points in his post: (i) eudaimonism is false so it’s not going to help much in grounding self-ownership or contractualism and (ii) the best reason to be a [...]
Libertarianism, Consequentialism, and Self-Ownership
By Fernando Teson On February 6, 2012 · 2 Comments · In Academic Philosophy, Book/Article Reviews, Consequentialism, Left-libertarianism, Libertarianism, Liberty
1) Consequentialist Considerations Are Crucial for Libertarians
In a recent post, Kevin Vallier suggests that libertarianism cannot be justified by either utilitarianism or self-ownership. The first is said to be too distributionally-insensitive; the second, too consequence-insensitive. In a sense I agree, but for somewhat different reasons. Libertarianism is a thesis about the proper [...]
Self-Ownership in Eudaimonist Dress
By Kevin Vallier On February 6, 2012 · 26 Comments · In Academic Philosophy, Libertarianism, Rights Theory
I am delighted that my friend and teacher Roderick Long has engaged my first foray into the blogosphere. Roderick has deeply influenced my views. For instance, if not for him, I would not be a eudaimonist.
But wait. Didn’t I say I was a contractualist? Isn’t that inconsistent [...]
John Tomasi’s Free Market Fairness
By Matt Zwolinski On February 6, 2012 · 27 Comments · In Academic Philosophy, Book/Article Reviews, Current Events, Libertarianism, Social Justice
John Tomasi’s new book, Free Market Fairness, is scheduled for release this week. I read this book in draft form almost exactly a year ago, when John was out in San Diego for a Liberty Fund conference I was running on Classical Liberalism in Contemporary Political Philosophy. A few of us (including [...]
Eudaimonist Libertarianism
By Roderick Long On February 4, 2012 · 87 Comments · In Academic Philosophy, Consequentialism, Left-libertarianism, Rights Theory
In his most recent post, Kevin Vallier argues that as potential moral foundations for libertarianism, “Utilitarianism is too consequence-sensitive and self-ownership is too consequence-insensitive.”
I agree with him, almost. (I think that utilitarianism is too consequence-sensitive and that most versions of self-ownership theory are too consequence-insensitive; but I think self-ownership itself escapes the [...]
Perhaps they’re not as salient to those of you who don’t spend your days on college campuses, but Students for Liberty is pretty freakin’ amazing. I’ve been watching small libertarian groups come and go on various college campuses for about the last 15 years now, and I have never seen (or read [...]
This is a little outside BHL’s writ, but we have a lot of political philosophy readers here, so I’ll just post a link: Charles Taylor at 80, a conference in Montreal, March 29-31, 2012
I’m very pleased to announce that from April 23-27 of 2012, the Bleeding Heart Libertarian blog will be hosting a virtual symposium on the topic of “Libertarianism and Land!”
The five day event will explore different libertarian perspectives on questions pertaining to the moral justification of and limits on property rights in land. Each day will [...]
Against Utilitarianism and Self-Ownership Defenses of Libertarianism
By Kevin Vallier On February 1, 2012 · 35 Comments · In Academic Philosophy, Consequentialism, Libertarianism, Rights Theory
Perhaps the best argument against utilitarian and self-ownership defenses of libertarianism is this:
Utilitarianism is too consequence-sensitive and self-ownership is too consequence-insensitive.
It’s a simple criticism. Utilitarianism is well-known for being too insensitive to matters besides utility, such as the separateness of persons (as Rawls made famous in TJ). Utilitarianism [...]
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