Friday Philosophy

There are only two ways to organize production in a complex modern economy: by centralized decision-making or through the free market. Only one of these alternatives is a real option.

Mises was strongly committed to Darwinism, but, he says, the social Darwinists drew the wrong lessons from evolution. The onset of the division of labor changes biological competition into social competition, in which no one is annihilated. 

Capitalism isn't unique to any particular group. People with the drive to save and invest have always existed; but the idea that this instinct was immoral had to be overcome for markets to flourish. 

When the subjective theory was formulated in the 1870s, it suffered from the defect of wrongly thinking that economic calculation could occur without prices. This defect gave socialists help in making their case.

Practically everyone wants material prosperity. For this reason, Mises argued, the marketplace is the one place where humanity can come within reach of rational agreement.

Before economic theory got started, philosophers studied political and economic affairs from a normative standpoint. The advent of subjectivism showed that there are regularities across all human action that limit what political action can achieve.

Steven Smith thinks that nationalism and globalism both are "pathologies" that afflict patriotism. He thinks a moderate course will get people to embrace the state as their highest political value.

It is no surprise that the corporate media tends to showcase and honor experts whose views tend to reflect the views of media pundits and editors themselves. The idea that the public might prefer other experts leaves these pundits in dismay.  

Senator Hawley wants government regulation of social media, and he insists that social media companies are somehow controlling and manipulating people. But Hawley is mistaken. You have free will even when using Facebook.

When people think of Rothbard as a philosopher, they often have in mind only his work in ethics and political philosophy, but he wrote about other areas of philosophy as well.