Murray Rothbard (Major Conservative and Libertarian Thinkers)

Casey, Gerard

ISBN 10: 1441100792 / ISBN 13: 9781441100795

Published by Bloomsbury Academic, 2013

About this Item

Volume 15 in the Major Conservative and Libertarian Thinkers series focuses on the American Economist, Murray Rothbard. Series: Major Conservative and Libertarian Thinkers. Num Pages: 192 pages. BIC Classification: JPA; JPFM; KCA. Category: (P) Professional & Vocational; (U) Tertiary Education (US: College). Dimension: 212 x 143 x 13. Weight in Grams: 258. . 2013. First Edition. paperback. . . . .

Seller Inventory # V9781441100795

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Murray Rothbard (Major Conservative and Libertarian Thinkers)
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Publication Date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1441100792
• ISBN 13: 9781441100795
• Binding: Soft cover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

Murray Rothbard (1926-1995) was an economist, historian, philosopher, and legal theoretician. His work was unified by a passionate and resolute commitment to a libertarianism that may be characterized as 'anarcho-capitalism' and which implied a belief that even the legal system may be provided privately without the need for a coercive collective authority. Hence, anarcho-capitalists envisage a society where the traditional role of government is wholly subsumed by private, profit-making enterprises and all social relationships are ultimately founded upon consent.
Rothbard's unique intellectual contribution was to build this system of thought from many pre-existing but previously disparate strands and to develop it to its logical conclusion. Rothbard's starting points were the notions of methodological individualism, natural rights theory, and individual self-ownership. He showed that if we wish these seriously then the justification for government falls away. According to Rothbard government can only be 'justified' if we abandon the notion that individuals have the right to determine what to do with their own bodies, a step he believed to be unconscionable.

About the Authors

Gerard Casey is Associate Professor of Philosophy at University College Dublin, Ireland, Adjunct Professor at the Maryvale Institute, Birmingham, UK, and Adjunct Scholar at the Ludwig von Mises Institute, Alabama, USA.

Dr. John Meadowcroft is Senior Lecturer in Public Policy and Head of the Department of Political Economy at King's College London, UK. He is the author of The Ethics of the Market (2005) and co-author of Rescuing Social Capital from Social Democracy (2007).