The Ethics of LibertyIn recent years, libertarian impulses have increasingly influenced national and economic debates, from welfare reform to efforts to curtail affirmative action. Murray N. Rothbard's classicThe Ethics of Libertystands as one of the most rigorous and philosophically sophisticated expositions of the libertarian political position.What distinguishes Rothbard's book is the manner in which it roots the case for freedom in the concept of natural rights and applies it to a host of practical problems. An economist by profession, Rothbard here proves himself equally at home with philosophy. And while his conclusions are radical--that a social order that strictly adheres to the rights of private property must exclude the institutionalized violence inherent in the state--his applications of libertarian principles prove surprisingly practical for a host of social dilemmas, solutions to which have eluded alternative traditions.The Ethics of Libertyauthoritatively established the anarcho-capitalist economic system as the most viable and the only principled option for a social order based on freedom. This edition is newly indexed and includes a new introduction that takes special note of the Robert Nozick-Rothbard controversies. |
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Page xix
... anarchist political theorists Lysander Spooner and Benjamin Tucker and the Belgian economist Gustave de Molinari , from the outset Rothbard's anarchism took it for granted that there will always be murderers , thieves , thugs , con ...
... anarchist political theorists Lysander Spooner and Benjamin Tucker and the Belgian economist Gustave de Molinari , from the outset Rothbard's anarchism took it for granted that there will always be murderers , thieves , thugs , con ...
Page xx
... anarchist . The classical - liberal answer , from the American Declaration of Inde- pendence to Mises , was to assign the indispensable task of protecting life , liberty , and property to government as its sole function . Rothbard ...
... anarchist . The classical - liberal answer , from the American Declaration of Inde- pendence to Mises , was to assign the indispensable task of protecting life , liberty , and property to government as its sole function . Rothbard ...
Page xxii
... Anarchy , State , and Utopia12 on the other . Nozick's book appeared in 1974 , three years after the pub- lication of Rawls's A Theory of Justice . Almost overnight Nozick was inter- nationally famous , and to this day , in the field of ...
... Anarchy , State , and Utopia12 on the other . Nozick's book appeared in 1974 , three years after the pub- lication of Rawls's A Theory of Justice . Almost overnight Nozick was inter- nationally famous , and to this day , in the field of ...
Page xxiii
... Anarchy , State , and Utopia was of a very different kind . The book was a 16. Ibid . , pp . x - xii , emphasis added . 17. Ibid . , p . x . series of dozens of disparate or loosely jointed arguments , INTRODUCTION xxiii.
... Anarchy , State , and Utopia was of a very different kind . The book was a 16. Ibid . , pp . x - xii , emphasis added . 17. Ibid . , p . x . series of dozens of disparate or loosely jointed arguments , INTRODUCTION xxiii.
Page xxiv
... Anarchy , State , and Utopia was due to the fact that at all times , and especially under democratic conditions , there are far more high time - preference intellec- tuals — intellectual thrill seekers — than patient and disciplined ...
... Anarchy , State , and Utopia was due to the fact that at all times , and especially under democratic conditions , there are far more high time - preference intellec- tuals — intellectual thrill seekers — than patient and disciplined ...
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Page xxii - Our main conclusions about the state are that a minimal state, limited to the narrow functions of protection against force, theft, fraud, enforcement of contracts, and so on, is justified; that any more extensive state will violate persons...
Page xiv - Among the essential features of this situation is that no one knows his place in society, his class position or social status, nor does any one know his fortune in the distribution of natural assets and abilities, his intelligence, strength and the like.