[extropy-chat] FWD (SK) Is libertarianism a faith position?

[Fred C. Moulton]

On Mon, 2006-02-06 at 21:56 -0700, Terry W. Colvin wrote: 
> by Edward Leser [edited and abridged]

First just in case anyone is trying to track this down I think the name
is Edward Feser not Edward Leser.

I am all in favor of criticism, but to be useful it needs to be accurate
and properly focused.  Feser seems to try but it was disappointing to
me.  Unfortunately the piece by Feser has inaccuracies such as the
statement: "... Richard Posner's book 'Sex  and Reason', which attempts
to account for all human sexual behavior in terms of perceived costs and
benefits."  Posner does present economic concepts in examining sexual
behavior, marriage practices and other similar phenomena but that does
not mean he ignores other fields.  Posner writes in his book "Despite
the emphasis I place on economics, my study is antispecialist in its
refusal to limits its method to that of economics.  I have drawn heavily
on research in other fields, especially biology (to such an extent
indeed that my approach might be described as bioeconomic rather than
economic) but also philosophy, psychology, sociology, anthropology,
women's studies, history and of course law.  There is no fundamental
incompatibility either among the fields I have named or between them and
economics."   I do not have reason to think that Feser was being
malicious when he wrote the remark about Posner but if Feser was going
to include Posner in the piece it might have been well to at least spend
a paragraph or two on how the Law and Economics movement has contributed
to the study of law and social sciences.  Or at the very least give a
more accurate description of Posner's book.

In addition the piece by Feser is further weakened by only examining the
limited government branch of libertarian thought and not examining the
anarchist branch.  But Feser seems to miss what might be reasonable
criticisms of the limited government branch of libertarian thought in an
over reliance on the historical influences on modern libertarian
thought.  A historical figure like Locke might have an influence on a
movement decades later but that does not entail that Locke's views on
religion and natural rights forms a critical component of modern
libertarian thought.  Newton certainly is one of the influences on
Extropian thought but Newton also dabbled in alchemy. If someone tried
to bring in Newton's alchemy as part of an attack on Extropian thought I
doubt few would find it persuasive.

As I said I am all for criticism of Libertarianism, Extropianism,
Socialism, etc but I urge that we also should expect high standards for
extropy-chat.  It may also be worth considering having a special list
set up called extropy-politics where those who want to discuss politics
can go.

Fred