Human conflict is an intrinsic part of human nature; it is as natural as tears. As Leo Strauss wrote, in modern society “the original conflict between moral demands and desires remains intact.” Individuals and their various enterprises often have conflictual relations between each other. These can take many forms and are often non-violent.
Defenders of the Civil Rights Act are always at great pains to portray themselves as eminently reasonable, when they argue that the nondiscrimination principle reflects the best of intentions to create a fairer world. Civil rights law indeed seems, on the face of it, to stand for nothing more than giving everyone a fair chance to participate in education or employment. What could be wrong with allowing black students to attend schools that were previously restricted to whites only, or preventing employers from firing anyone based entirely on the color of his skin?
According to the Treasury Department’s monthly statement released on Thursday, Federal spending surged again in August, rising to the highest spending level reported in 30 months. At the same time, the deficit rose to the second-highest August deficit on record, topped only by August 2024.
The focus of anarcho-capitalism as a political philosophy is the autonomy of the individual: everyone should be able to peacefully pursue their life project without suffering unwanted interference. The ethical axis that allows this objective to be achieved is private property. This allows both bodies and external goods to be legitimately assigned and delimited, making it possible to identify and judge transfers of acquired property.
Elizabeth Anscombe was one of the greatest twentieth century philosophers and, in this week’s column, I’d like to consider her argument in her dense and difficult article “On the Source of the Authority of the State.” Anscombe is not hard to understand in the sense that she uses many technical terms that non-philosophers are unlikely to know. She writes in ordinary English.
Why do independent central banks exist in the modern economy? According to J. Keith Horsefield, it was originally thought independent central banks would “prevent [governments’] extravagance from creating inflation and thus leading to financial crashes.” It is almost like the state itself was confessing its ineptitude to intervene in the economy.
The infamous 9/11 attacks took many Americans completely by surprise and seemed to come out of the “clear blue sky.” These attacks appeared random, senseless, and incongruous with the “peaceful” 1990s. However, on September 12, 2001, libertarian activist and former presidential candidate, Harry Browne, was not surprised. He knew what many Americans either didn’t know or had ignored to their detriment—the foreign policy history of the previous decade, the 1990s, and beyond. In an essay entitled “When will we learn?
