[ExI] Usages of the term libertarianism

F. C. Moulton moulton at moulton.com
Wed May 11 02:07:17 UTC 2011


On 05/10/2011 06:44 AM, Dan wrote:
> In this vein, looking to, say, Robert Nozick's famous book -- and
> leaving aside that he doesn't much ground his views as simply present
> them and give criticism to opposing views, such as egalitarianism,
> socialism, welfare statism, and market anarchism -- one can see
> something many libertarians in America share: a natural rights basis
> for their libertarianism. (Usually, talk about self-ownership or
> non-initiation of forces leads to the same position. For example, the
> non-initiation of force principle has to be combined with some
> framework in which force and its initiation can be defined.
I should have mentioned something which I am sure you know (but others
may not) that Nozick wrote his book partially in response to the book A
Theory Of Justice by John Rawls.  Rawls is probably not as influential
now as in prior years but is still worth being familiar with because
occasionally one finds allusions to his ideas from A Theory Of Justice.

I think that using the Pan-Critical Rationalism of Bartley can go a long
way towards helping develop a flexible philosophical approach to
political thinking.  For those without the time to read The Retreat to
Commitment there is a good summary essay by Max which is well worth
reading.

Fred

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