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Natural Rights Reading List?

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hayekianxyz Posted: Sun, Sep 14 2008 9:37 PM

It seems to me people often ask about what to read to learn about natural rights (myself included) and it seems a bit silly for me to suggest a topic like this seeing as I wouldn't have much to add to.

But I think it would be beneficial to have a list for what to read on natural rights, even if only to direct people to it if they ask elsewhere.

"You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows"

Bob Dylan

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I would suggest Rothbard's Ethics of Liberty and Hoppe's A Theory of Socialism and Capitalism.

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Hoppe is not a NR ethicist. I'd recommend Henry Veatch and Douglas Rasmussen and Douglas den Uyl. More classical sources such as Aquinas or Finnis or Annas are also good, but the above writers present their arguments in condensed form and are of a libertarian perspective. Rothbard recommends Veatch as well. Keep in mind Rothbard takes NR as justified in TEOL. His task there is to draw out its implications.

Freedom of markets is positively correlated with the degree of evolution in any society...

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Isn't Hoppe's argumentation ethics a justification of NR?

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No. NR are the right to life, liberty and property, the latter two being corollaries of the first, and self-ownership being implicit in the right to liberty. Hoppe's proof, if successful, does prove their corollaries/derivatives, but only in the same way that Kantian ethics might do so, which is not in any sense a NR theory. Hoppe acknowledges as much anyway. What might be done is, Hoppe's proof could be incorporated into NR theory as a negative demonstration. If that were to be done it'd indeed be a justification of NR, amongst others.

Freedom of markets is positively correlated with the degree of evolution in any society...

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Geoffrey Allan Plauche's dissertation here: http://www.veritasnoctis.net/docs/plauchedissertation.pdf

and other writings here: http://www.veritasnoctis.net/academic-writings/

 

The state is a disease and Liberty is the both the victim and the only means to a lasting cure.

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Bob_Hall replied on Wed, Jul 14 2010 8:19 PM
My suggestion is "The Law" by Fredrick Bastiat
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