Index

Compiled by Roger E. Bissell

agent neutrality, 79n49, 79n50. See also equinormativity; universality

agent relativity, 72, 76, 79n49

alcohol

abuse, 4, 26

deaths, 36

prohibition, 133

use as impediment to consent, 203

use as increasing likelihood of violent behavior, 133

American Founding Fathers, 83

Analytical Marxism, 159–61. See also Cohen, G. A.; Elster, Jon; Rawls, John; Roemer, John

as methodological individualist, not ontological individualist, 180n96

Two Essays On
Market Anarchy

by
Robert P. Murphy

With an Introduction by
Jeremy Sapienza

Illustrations by
Robert Vroman

RJ Communications LLC
New York

Copyright © 2002 Robert P. Murphy

All rights reserved.

Published by
RJ Communications LLC
51 East 42nd Street, Suite 1202
New York, NY 10017

All men with honor are kings. But not all kings have honor.—Liam Neeson, Rob Roy

Foreword

This book is dedicated to those who believe government is a necessary evil: You’re half right.

The following essays show that the two most crucial “functions” of government—law and defense—can be efficiently supplied on the free market. The State is thus shown to be completely unnecessary. Anarchy, the absence of coercive government, must not be confused with chaos.

Acknowledgements

My intellectual debt in anarchist theory belongs, hands down, to the late great Murray Rothbard (1916-1995). More broadly, my view of “how the world works” is due primarily to that fount of wisdom, Ludwig von Mises’ treatise Human Action.

The original idea (and Introduction) for this book came from Jeremy Sapienza. Robert Vroman provided the wonderful (if somewhat disturbing) artwork that so mercifully interrupts the monotony of the text. Matt Pramschufer laid out the cover design.

Introduction

So, Chaos Theory, huh? Yeah, it’s not actually about chaos theory,1 but it is a really cool title. And the book itself—may be the most important to date on anarchist theory and its possible application to the “real world.”

Private Law1

Without question, the legal system is the one facet of society that supposedly requires State provision. Even such champions of laissez- faire as Milton Friedman and Ludwig von Mises believed a government must exist to protect private property and define the “rules of the game.”

However, their arguments focused on the necessity of law itself. They simply assumed that the market is incapable of defining and protecting property rights. They were wrong.