October 04, 2012
On the Probability of Being Decisive
This post is in response to Andrew Gelman’s post here. Gelman is a very good political scientist and statistician, but I’ve notice over and over that’s he’s rather overconfident when…
Year: 2012
October 04, 2012
Anarchist Calisthenics
James C. Scott, author of the excellent Seeing Like a State, and The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia, has a new book just out: Two…
October 04, 2012
Reading The Ethics of Liberty, Part 4 – Rothbard’s Second Argument for Self-Ownership
In my last post, I argued that Rothbard’s discussion of self-ownership in chapter six of The Ethics of Liberty rests on a fundamental confusion between descriptive and normative claims. Individuals in the…
October 04, 2012
Do Libertarians Think All Politicians Are Selfish and Evil?
More from Libertarianism: What Everyone Needs to Know. There’s a stereotype that libertarians think politicians and other government agents are selfish sociopaths, out for themselves. Libertarians oppose romantic ideas about government….
October 03, 2012
The Ethics of Voting and Reason Magazine
Here’s the cover story for Reason magazine‘s November issue. It discusses my work on voting at some length. Excerpt: Many people like to be perceived as altruists, for example. Voting is one…
October 03, 2012
What Do Libertarians Think about the US Constitution?
More from Libertarianism: What Everyone Needs to Know Certain libertarians of a more conservative bent tend to treat the US Constitution as a sacred document. Some think tanks routinely pump out…