2. Natural Law as “Science”
It is indeed puzzling that so many modern philosophers should sniff at the very term “nature” as an injection of mysticism and the supernatural. An apple, let fall, will drop to the ground; this we all observe and acknowledge to be in the nature of the apple (as well as the world in general). Two atoms of hydrogen combined with one of oxygen will yield one molecule of water—behavior that is uniquely in the nature of hydrogen, oxygen, and water. There is nothing arcane or mystical about such observations. Why then cavil at the concept of “nature”?
Mises Biography Now Available in China
Our friend Xiong Yue informs us that Dr. Huang Huaqiao’s Chinese translation of Guido Hülsmann’s The Last Knight of Liberalism has just been published.
Preface
All of my work has revolved around the central question of human liberty. For it has been my conviction that, while each discipline has its own autonomy and integrity, in the final analysis all sciences and disciplines of human action are interrelated, and can be integrated into a “science” or discipline of individual liberty.
Part I Introduction: Natural Law
1. Natural Law and Reason
Among intellectuals who consider themselves “scientific,” the phrase “the nature of man” is apt to have the effect of a red flag on a bull.
Acknowledgments
This work has been literally a lifetime in the making, for my vital interest in libertarianism began in childhood, and has intensified ever since. Hence, it is simply impossible to mention and acknowledge all the people or influences from whom I have learned, and to whom I am deeply grateful. In particular, I have had the good fortune to benefit from countless discussions, interchanges, and correspondence with a large number of thoughtful and scholarly libertarians, all of whom have helped to form my ideas and hence to shape this work.
Introduction by Hans-Hermann Hoppe
In an age of intellectual hyperspecialization, Murray N. Rothbard was a grand system builder. An economist by profession, Rothbard was the creator of a system of social and political philosophy based on economics and ethics as its cornerstones. For centuries, economics and ethics (political philosophy) had diverged from their common origin into seemingly unrelated intellectual enterprises. Economics was a value-free “positive” science, and ethics (if it was a science at all) was a “normative” science.
Price Controls Are Disastrous for Venezuela, and Everywhere Else
Images of citizens waiting in lines to get basic goods — toilet paper, flour, milk — throughout supermarkets in Venezuela abound across the internet. Such surreal imagery is the norm in present-day Venezuela. From the 1950s to the late 1990s, Venezuela was Latin America’s most economically and politically stable country. Fast-forward to the present, and Venezuela is not only undergoing an unprecedented economic collapse, but it is also on the verge of becoming a failed state.
Nasty Politics and “Low-Information Voters” Are Nothing New
During this year’s election cycle, the mainstream media has told us to believe that there is something shockingly nasty about the tone of this year’s contests. CNBC typifies this line of thinking with an article titled “Trump v Clinton: Why this election could be the nastiest in history.”
