March 23, 2015
Libertarian Strategy in a Non-Ideal World
I’ve recently finished an early ms of Gerald Gaus’s next book, The Tyranny of the Ideal, which argues, among other things, that we need to know the shape of the…
Posts filed under ideal theory
January 05, 2015
Libertarian Theory for the Real World
Last month, I presented a paper at a Georgetown University conference on “The Ethical Limits of Markets.” The title of my paper was “A Libertarian Case for the Moral Limits…
July 14, 2014
Will Wilkinson and Jason Brennan on Bloggingheads
Free Will is back! Will and I chat about Why Not Capitalism? here.
July 09, 2014
The Dominance Argument for Capitalism
In the past 30 years at least, we’ve seen that arguments about markets vs. socialism in philosophy inevitably turn to arguments about the methodology of philosophy. In particular, we see…
June 20, 2014
Socialism ≠ Love and Kindness; Capitalism ≠ Greed and Fear
Last year, I presented Why Not Capitalism at two APAs and a few universities. To my surprise and delight, the most common reaction (from my usually left-wing colleagues) was, “Oh, wow,…
June 18, 2014
Don’t Dumb Down Justice to Accommodate Bad Motivations
Cohen says, and I agree, that whether something is desirable or better from a moral point of view has nothing to do with whether it’s feasible. It’s not possible for…