Libertarianism: What Everyone Needs to Know Table of Contents

By On September 24, 2012 · 17 Comments · In Book/Article Reviews

Books in Oxford University Press’s What Everyone Needs to Know series take a question-and-answer format. They are intended to be advanced introductions, the kind of thing both a high school student and a college professor can get something out of.

Here is the final table of contents.

 

Chapter One: The Basics of Libertarianism

  1. What is libertarianism?
  2. What do libertarians advocate?
  3. What do libertarians oppose?
  4. Why do we need to know about libertarianism?
  5. Are there different kinds of libertarians?
  6. Are libertarians conservatives?
  7. Are libertarians liberals?
  8. Is libertarianism a radical view?
  9. Are libertarians followers of Ayn Rand?
  10. Is libertarianism a new view?
  11. What are some common criticisms of libertarianism?
  12. What percentage of Americans are libertarians?
  13. Who are some famous libertarians?

Chapter Two: The Nature and Value of Liberty

  1. How do libertarians define “liberty”?
  2. Why do some libertarians reject positive liberty?
  3. Why do many libertarians now accept positive liberty?
  4. Why do libertarians think liberty is so important?
  5. Do libertarians think liberty is the only value?
  6. Do libertarians think liberty trumps all other values?
  7. Do libertarians think our only moral duty is to respect others’ liberty?
  8. What is the “presumption of liberty”?
  9. What rights do libertarians think we have?
  10. Do libertarians believe rights are absolute?

 

Chapter Three: Human Nature and Ethics

  1. Do libertarians believe everyone is selfish?
  2. Do libertarians believe everyone should be selfish?
  3. Are libertarians themselves unusually selfish?
  4. Why do some critics believe libertarians have an overly optimistic view of human nature?
  5. Are libertarians moral relativists or moral nihilists?
  6. Is libertarianism atheistic?
  7. Are libertarians individualists?

 

Chapter Four: Government and Democracy

  1. How do libertarians define “government”?
  2. Why do libertarians favor limited government and dislike big government?
  3. Are libertarians anarchists?
  4. Do libertarians believe there is a duty to obey the law?
  5. Do libertarians think politicians are selfish and evil?
  6. What is government failure and how does it relate to market failure?
  7. What are some forms of government failure?
  8. Do libertarians favor democracy?
  9. Why do some libertarians say democracies make dumb choices?
  10. What do libertarians think about the US Constitution?
  11. Are libertarians nationalists?
  12. How do libertarians propose to keep money out of politics?
  13. Are libertarians hawks or doves on foreign policy?

 

Chapter Five: Civil Rights

44. What is the libertarian view of civil liberty?

45. What civil rights do libertarians think we have?

46. What is the libertarian view of free speech and freedom of conscience?

47. Are libertarians for or against capital punishment?

48. Are libertarians soft on crime?

49. How would libertarians solve the problem of high crime?

50. Why do libertarians oppose the War on Drugs?

51. Why would libertarians legalize prostitution?

52.  Why do libertarians want to allow organ sales?

53. Are libertarians feminists?

54. Why do libertarians support same-sex marriage?

55. Do libertarians support the right of homosexuals to adopt children?

56. Why do libertarians oppose the draft?

57. Why do libertarians oppose mandatory national service?

58. What do libertarians think about the gun control?

59. What do libertarians think we should do about current and historical racial injustice?

60. Why do libertarians say that the market punishes discrimination?

61. Would libertarians allow private business discrimination?

 

Chapter Six: Economic Freedom

62. What economic rights do libertarians believe we have?

63. Are libertarians only concerned about economic issues?

64. Why do libertarians think economic freedom is important?

65. Why do libertarians think property rights in particular are important?

66. How do libertarians respond to the Marxist worry that property rights are “merely formal”?

67. Do libertarians think property rights are absolute?

68. Why are libertarians so concerned about economic growth, prosperity, and wealth?

69. Why do libertarians support markets?

70. Why do libertarians support free trade between countries?

71. Are libertarians just trying to protect the interests of Big Business?

72. Why do libertarians believe socialism causes the worst to get on top?

73. Why do libertarians believe socialism fails to create prosperity?

74. Why do libertarians oppose government interventions into the economy?

 

Chapter Seven: Social Justice and the Poor

75. What is social justice?

76. Do most libertarians reject social justice?

77. Do all libertarians reject social justice?

78. What do libertarians think about economic inequality?

79. Why do libertarians oppose welfare states?

80. How can you be a welfarist without advocating a welfare state?

82. Are all libertarians opposed to the welfare state?

83. How do libertarians propose to end poverty without an extensive welfare state?

84. Why do libertarians claim governments tend to hurt the poor?

85. Why do libertarians oppose minimum wage laws?

86. Do libertarians support international aid?

 

Chapter Eight: Contemporary Problems

87. What would libertarians do about illegal immigrants?

88. What would libertarians do about the War on Terror?

89. What would libertarians do about pollution and the environment?

89. What would libertarians do about people who cannot afford health care?

90. What would libertarians do about failing public schools?

91. What would libertarians do about the rise of the Chinese economy?

92. Did an unregulated free market cause the recent financial crisis?

93. How would libertarians fix the economy?

 

Chapter Nine: Politics: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

94. How popular is libertarianism in the United States?

95. Is the Tea Party libertarian?

96. Is Occupy Wall Street libertarian?

97. Are most libertarians members of the Libertarian Party?

98. Is the United States the most libertarian country?

99. Which states are the most and least libertarian?

100. Was the United States ever a libertarian country?

101. Is the United States becoming more or less libertarian?

102. What could a libertarian president actually do?

103. Might the US become libertarian soon?

104. What influence does libertarianism have outside the United States?

105. Is the world becoming more or less libertarian?

 

Glossary

Index

 

You might wonder why some questions appeared in one chapter rather than another. Often, it comes down to the kind of answer I give. For instance, take the question on prostitution. That could have gone in chapter 5, 6, or 7. But my way of dealing with it makes it work best in chapter 5.

One fun fact: The term “self-ownership” doesn’t appear in the body of the text. It only appears in the bibliography, in a Jerry Cohen (an Oxford Marxist) title.

 
  • liberty

    Congrats on the book – and the contents looks excellent.

    • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1702318862 Jason Brennan

      Thanks!

  • Kevin Dick

    When will the Kindle version be available?

    Apologize if you’ve answered this elsewhere, but I didn’t find it in the previous thread.

    • Jason Brennan

      Sorry, don’t know yet. I asked the editor, but haven’t gotten a reply

  • http://twitter.com/dL_1337 dL

    Republicans have not embraced a philosophy “of individual freedom and unfettered markets.”

    • http://www.facebook.com/les.nearhood Les Kyle Nearhood

      certainly not, but who ever accused Republicans of being libertarian?

  • Sean II

    Two things really jump out at you from reading this table, with its remarkably thorough list of issues and questions.

    1) Libertarians have become what Jews once were: a universal target, eligible to be hated for totally contradictory reasons and accused of mutually exclusive crimes.

    We think people are wicked, selfish creatures AND we’re too optimistic about human nature. We don’t care about the poor AND we hate the government for hurting them. We’re moral nihilists AND we cling to dogmatic theories about ethics and individual rights. We run around brandishing guns with the Tea Party AND we’re out banging drums with the Occupy crowd. We’re a bunch of Randian atheists AND we embrace members of every religious group under the sun. We only care about economics AND we’re perfectly willing to sacrifice the economy on behalf of our formalistic laws and scruples.

    2) But unlike the old nineteenth century anti-Semitic libels, many of these seemingly paradoxical suspicions about libertarianism are – how to put this? – well-grounded and well-deserved. A book that failed to address those points would surely have been denounced for ignoring them.

    For me it’s obvious what that means: there is now more intellectual diversity within the libertarian movement than there is in every other corner of the Nolan chart, combined. Of course I think that’s really cool and something brag about, but it must be terribly confusing to all the people out there who stills buy their political and philosophic products off-the-rack. But hey, somebody went and wrote a book for them (and us too)!

    • good_in_theory

      Where are the contradictory or mutually exclusive “libels” here? I see an example of counter-intuitive relationships between principles and positions, not pluralism.

      • Sean II

        Is that a serious question, or are you just throwing a glove at my feet?

        Without even looking beyond the boundaries of this blog, you can find people who are anarchists and people who support a universal basic income, both calling themselves libertarians.

        That, right there, is a far bigger difference of opinion than anything you’ll find between the stock left-vs-right characters trolling each other in the comments section at The Nation or the National Review.

        Hell, even when everyone here seems to agree on something (like opposing the drug war) it turns out there are fascinating divisions about how and why.

        If that’s not pluralism…what is?

        • good_in_theory

          I’m not saying “libertarianism” isn’t plural (but most all -isms are, it’s not really a claim to distinction), but that the examples given don’t demonstrate pluralism due to their alleged mutual exclusivity.

          • Sean II

            First you did not see the “mutually exclusive libels”, now they loom so large as to obscure your view.

            The point is that people outside libertarianism work within a narrower range of acceptable debate, and so they often accuse us of offending the center from both flanks. That doesn’t mean we’re actually guilty of any real contradictions. The complaint against pluralism is always that it tolerates the intolerable, joins the irreconcilable, etc.

          • good_in_theory

            What? “Loom so large as to obscure my view”?

            If there are no mutual exclusivities, then you cannot demonstrate pluralism due to the existence of “mutually exclusive positions.”

            If the argument is “If X then Y,” and it is not the case “that X,” then it can certainly be the case “that Y,” but it cannot be the case “that Y because of X.” So, “the examples given don’t demonstrate pluralism due to their alleged mutual exclusivity.

            As to the claim that others work within a ‘narrower range of debate,’ I just don’t see that as true. It’s a nice bit of self-satisfied smugness, but it doesn’t really reflect the reality of how broadly one could construe debates and disagreement internal to ‘liberalism’ or ‘socialism,’ or probably even ‘conservatism.’

    • http://www.facebook.com/les.nearhood Les Kyle Nearhood

      I think it may be necessary in any ongoing discussions to let people know what “type” of Libertarian you are because the truth is that we are a most diverse lot. Most of you have been writing here a long time and your views are well known. Since I have only been here a while I will explain my own ideas. I am NOT a BHL. I come from a conservative/fiscal area of libertarianism. As such I am much more impressed by arguments based upon sound economics and much less impressed by arguments about equality or social justice. Not that I am immune to such arguments. I do consider them. I am also a pragmatist. I think that any libertarian view taken to it’s logical extreme has about as much chance of success as pure liberalism or pure conservatism. In other words zero.

      • Sean II

        On the other hand, maybe one good thing about being stuck on the political fringe is that it allows us to avoid sorting ourselves into permanent sub-categories for the time being.

        We’ll have plenty of time to act like bickering 1970s Marxists after the revolution comes. That’s when self-destructive sectarian hair-splitting will be cool again.

  • Barry Stocker

    G.A. Cohen was an ‘Oxford Marxist’ for a time, when he was known as a leading proponent of Analytic Marxism (he was at University College London during part of that time). However, by the time of the one Cohen book that appears in your bibliography he was on the extreme egalitarian frontier of egalitarian liberalism, and criticised Marxism from that point of view. He claimed that Marxism and Libertarianism shared the same attitude to property. Both assume that there is an absolute ownership of property, which for Marxists means that ‘profit’ is something illegitimately taken from workers who are the rightful owners of that value, while for Libertarians it means that all property acquired through free contract is absolute property which cannot be disturbed. Cohen argues that Marxism is an inadequate foundation for egalitarianism because it is based on the property rights not on distributive justice and cannot deal with the problems of reconciling the various forms of measuring equality. The view of equality is close to Marxism in its intentions, but has a distinct foundation. Not justifying Cohen here, just explaining.

  • Matt

    I suspect that if you’re feeling honest, you’ll have to admit that many of those things, while perhaps of some interest, are not in fact things that “everyone needs to know” about libertarianism, even if they are interested in libertarianism. I suppose I should blame the person who came up w/ the silly series title, and just be happy that it’s not called “What is this thing call libertarianism?” (The “What is this thing called X” series is really the worst named series out of the recent spell of poorly named series, I think.)

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