The Liberty Option - Softcover

Machan, Tibor R.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0907845630 ISBN 13: 9780907845638

Publisher: Societas, 2003

Synopsis

The Liberty Option advances the idea that for compelling moral as well as practical reasons it is the free society -- with the rule of law founded on the principles of private property rights, its complete respect for individual sovereignty and properly limited legal authorities -- not one or another version of statism that serves justice best, is most prosperous and encourages the greatest measure of individual virtue on the part of the citizenry. The work shows why this is so and lays out some of the most crucial implications of the idea. While the book presents a principled approach to politics, it is firmly grounded in the best and most up to date understanding of human community life and history as well as many of its complications, challenges, adversities and prospects.

About this title

About the Author

Tibor Machan teaches ethics at Chapman University and is a research fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. He has written a number of books on classical liberal theory, including Classical Individualism (Routledge, 1998).

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Preface

This is a brief introduction to the philosophy of liberty also dubbed classical liberalism and libertarianism in the literature of political philosophy the political outlook that is associated with such thinkers as John Locke, Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, Ludwig von Mises, F.A. Hayek, Milton Friedman, Ayn Rand and others. The best-known academic philosophical exponent of this view was the late Robert Nozick, of Harvard University, in his book Anarchy, State, and Utopia.

After a longish introduction the rest of the essays discuss certain central issues in libertarianism and the book ends with some brief and thus mainly suggestive thoughts about ways in which the natural rights variety of libertarianism addresses a variety of issues.

It has been pointed out to me over my career that libertarianism may be better defended on utilitarian grounds than the ones I deploy. That is to say, it is good to respect and protect individual liberty because that way the highest values of human life will be best secured and promoted.

Unfortunately, sometimes this is true but not always at times free men and women do not secure and promote what is best for them. They may be lazy, careless, and even reckless. So, being free doesn t guarantee happiness. It is for this reason that some prominent libertarians distinguish themselves from utilitarians the late Robert Nozick is most notable for this. The utilitarian typically will deploy force or even become a statist so as to secure the greatest good for all, whereas the libertarian holds that individual rights to life, liberty and property are unalienable, inviolate, even if this risks occasional setbacks on the front of promoting certain values.

Of course, if respecting the rights to life, liberty and property actually promoted human unhappiness these rights could not be defended. But that s not the issue. What is at stake is whether a principled, rights- based defense of libertarianism is sound, rather than one that requires showing, in each case where a public policy decision needs to be made, that liberty will assure the promotion of happiness. In my view the former approach is correct and so I do not think, for example, that whether or not gun control laws ought to be enacted needs to be debated every week, month or even year, based on the latest statistics as to whether places with such laws reduce or increase crime.

So, we have in these brief essays discussions of what libertarianism means and why it is, beyond a reasonable doubt, the best political system.

Edition details

• Publisher: Societas
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0907845630
• ISBN 13: 9780907845638
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 104