In my article “Carl Menger’s Overlooked Vital Evolutionary Insights,” I tried to summarize and bring attention to founder of the Austrian School of economics Carl Menger’s “vital evolutionary insights” regarding the evolved, non-human-designed emergence of social institutions like “law, of language, of the origin of markets, the origin of communities

[Reinterpreting Libertarianism: New Directions in Libertarian Studies edited by Lukasz Dominiak, Igor Wysocki, Stanislaw Wotowicz, and Dawid Megger. (Routledge, 2026; x+ 245 pp.)]

In 1892, Carl Menger wrote On the Origins of Money—the original basis of Austrian monetary theory. This essential work lays out a theory as to how monies emerged through voluntary human action and exchanges on a free market. Menger also critiqued other monetary theories—money from social compact or civil edict—as unhistorical.

Self-defense and gun ownership are constantly being attacked in modern discourse and by the mainstream media, yet their legitimacy rests on principles far older than any constitution, preceding and transcending any political framework. The importance of self-defense lies in its role as a safeguard against both private and state aggression. Unlike modern states, which increasingly disarm their citizens and leave them defenseless, a private-law society would place no restrictions on the individual ownership of firearms or other weapons.