Philosophy and Methodology

In a lifeboat situation, writes Murray Rothbard, we apparently have a war of all against all, and there seems at first to be no way to apply our theory of self-ownership or of property rights.

Americans have something in common with Iraqis, writes Lew Rockwell: experience has told us that when the government promises to bring us security, it means only that it wants more control over our lives.

The road to serfdom — in both Norway and America— is no coincidental detour, writes Ilana Mercer, but rather a well-charted destiny and often flows through mass political participation.

Ideological factors, especially comparative religions, are considered. Until 1500, China was the most developed region on the globe. Confucianism has no promise of an afterlife. There are no miracles for them. They are realistic and rational. Confucius is not a god or prophet. He is revered as a great teacher. His teachings are compatible with capitalism.

In the face of overwhelming evidence of the prosperity of capitalism, Marxists were forced to rephrase their arguments from material provisions to quality of life. Robert Nozick, a brilliant philosopher of liberty, became a libertarian. Anarchy, State, and Utopia, his main book, dominates debate in political philosophy.

Intellectuals are pro-power and anti-market. Great presidents are war presidents who glorify power. The Costs of War and Reassessing the Presidency are recommended books on this topic. The First World War was a turning point which vastly extended state power, and vastly destroyed social power.

Gustave de Molinari became the grand old man of classical liberalism, crediting Pareto. Molinari understood that the main issue in the Civil War was the tariff, not slavery. In Italy economists founded free market economics, crediting Bastiat.

Humans are prone to envy, writes Helmut Schoeck in Envy: A Theory of Social Behavior. Humans try to set up a society in which none is envious of another. George Stigler of the Chicago School saw man as always a utility maximizer.

Ralph Raico covers classical liberalism’s growth, development and possible future. Liberalism arose in Europe entwined with Christianity. Why Europe? The East lacked the idea of freedom from the state and never established the legal system that could protect wealth. Europe had multiple, decentralized competing powers, not a universal empire.

Germany surrendered conditionally in 1919 under the Treaty of Versailles. Everybody opposed the treaty, but it was forcibly implemented. Revisionism is necessary to combat state propaganda, e.g. the lie in WWII that FDR was surprised by Pearl Harbor.