Political Freedom and its Roots in Metaphysics
Libertarianism -the political philosophy based on the concept of individual rights -seems to be an inherently clear, unambiguous position.
Libertarianism -the political philosophy based on the concept of individual rights -seems to be an inherently clear, unambiguous position.
The original version of this paper was delivered at the Sixth Annual Libertarian Scholars Conference, held in October 1978 at Princeton University,
The theory of natural rights is often put forward as competition of moral relativism, most recently in an article in this journal by Loren Lomasky.
In this note I will argue that social contract theories aimed at establishing norms for personal and community life are inadequate.
The influence of moral philosophy on the rise of laissez faire is a topic that several scholars have examined.
If law exists only where there are state-backed courts and codes, then every primitive society was lawless.
Murray Rothbard was seriously interested in a remarkably large array of topics, one of them being the effects of rival eschatological views during
Libertarians tend to focus on two important units of analysis: the individual and the state.
Establishment economics is in a much deserved state of disarray.
It will be argued in this paper that the external-benefits and public-goods arguments are incorrect and are due to a failure to consider all or the