Conservatives and utilitarian classical liberals support freedom of contract because they deem it "useful" to society. However, Murray Rothbard believed that contractual freedom should be based upon the natural right of self-ownership.
Mainstream economists believe that economic theory is valid when it “predicts” economic actions or trends. Austrian economists, however, say that the purpose of economic theory is to explain economic events.
A common knock on libertarianism is that it is so individualistic that it rejects the concept of community. (Think of the political cartoon in which the libertarian lifeguard let people drown.) In truth, strong communities also need free individuals.
300 years ago, on April 22, 1724, the German philosopher Immanuel Kant was born in Königsberg, East Prussia.
The academic world is supposed to serve as a beacon of enlightenment. Instead, as Wanjiru Njoya demonstrates, it promotes a failed liberalism.
Libertarianism is criticized on all sides, but a new criticism has emerged that claims libertarianism is little more than another form of critical theory. Like the other complaints, this one is based on fallacious thinking.
In today’s edition of Friday Philosophy, David Gordon reviews The Prophets of Doom by Neema Parvini. The author deals with conservatives that believe that free markets threaten the virtue of our society.
While Ludwig von Mises wrote in favor of democracy, his support for it was utilitarian at best, and he certainly did not have a near-religious affinity for it. Mises saw democracy as a means to peacefully transfer political power, period.
In this world of DEI, equality has given way to “equity,” which means equal outcomes. This not only violates natural law, as Murray Rothbard noted, but also is harmful to society, including the supposed beneficiaries of this ideology.
In our present age, too many believe the “winner” of an argument is whoever unleashes the most insults. Norman Finkelstein’s recent “debate” with the online personality Destiny is Exhibit A.
