All Posts Tagged With: "classical liberalism"
Economic Sentiments: Adam Smith, Condorcet, and the Enlightenment
There is a burgeoning movement afoot to redefine Adam Smith as a “liberal” of the contemporary, progressive sort, rather than as the icon of classical liberalism he is standardly taken to be. It has never been a secret that Smith was no anarchist, nor even, probably, a “minarchist.” He argued that the government should undertake [...]
11Feb2003 | James R. Otteson | 0 comments | ContinuedWilliam E. Rappard: An International Man in an Age of Nationalism
Richard Ebeling is the Ludwig von Mises Professor of Economics and chairman of the economics department at Hillsdale College. On April 1, 1947, 35 free-market economists, political scientists, philosophers, journalists, and businessmen met at the Swiss Alpine resort of Mont Pèlerin. They had been brought together by F. A. Hayek to found a society of [...]
1Jan2000 | Richard M. Ebeling | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Second Amendment in the Light of American Republicanism
The “transforming” ideology of America’s revolutionary period saw the chief conflict in society as one between liberty and power. That ideology synthesized themes from several sources.[1] Given the differing origins and jumping-off points of classical liberalism and classical republicanism (the two most important elements), the American “synthesis” might be expected to undergo some unraveling when up against the harder problems of political life.
1Jun1999 | Joseph R. Stromberg | 4 comments | ContinuedTensions in Early American Political Thought
According to the eminent historian of political thought J.G.A. Pocock, republican theory (or “civic humanism”) was the most significant current of eighteenth-century English and American political philosophy. In the form of “country ideology,” republicanism gave “left” and “right” critics of government policies a framework and believable rhetoric for their arguments.
1May1999 | Joseph R. Stromberg | 0 comments | ContinuedPhilosophy 1 On 1
James Otteson teaches in the department of philosophy at the University of Alabama. It is no secret that classical liberalism receives little attention in American academic philosophy, and then generally only as a historical artifact. What one hears is something like this: “No serious philosopher today believes that people can get on without substantial, organized [...]
1Mar1999 | James R. Otteson | 2 comments | ContinuedFantasies of Salvation: Democracy, Nationalism, and Myth in Post-Communist Europe by Vladimir Tismaneanu
Princeton University Press • 1998 • 216 pages • $29.95 David Prychitko studied the former Yugoslav system on a Fulbright grant in 1989, and currently heads the department of economics at Northern Michigan University in Marquette. He is co-editor, with Nevenka Cuckovic, of a collection of classic articles by Mises and Hayek, translated into Croatian. [...]
1Mar1999 | David L. Prychitko | 1 comment | ContinuedThe Culture of Classical Liberalism
Tadd Wilson is a freelance writer in Fairfax, Virginia. Despite what is taught in most universities, the essentially classical liberal ideas of free-market economics and limited government have won the basic test of any doctrine: does it beat the best alternative? The evidence is clear, whether in the collapse of the former Soviet Union’s planned [...]
1Dec1998 | Tadd Wilson | 6 comments | ContinuedHuman Ignorance and Social Engineering
Throughout most of intellectual history, society has been considered to be the result of someone’s design. In his multi-volume Law, Legislation, and Liberty, the social theorist F. A. Hayek referred to this position as “constructivist rationalism” and argued vigorously against it. In his 1974 Nobel Memorial Lecture, titled “The Pretence of Knowledge,” Hayek expressed a [...]
1May1998 | Wendy McElroy | 8 comments | ContinuedDefining State and Society
Two of the most important concepts in any discussion of liberty are state and society. But it is often far from clear what any given person means by those terms. Part of the confusion stems from the fact that the definitions can shift dramatically depending upon the theoretical approach of the speaker. Virtually all individualists [...]
1Apr1998 | Wendy McElroy | 0 comments | ContinuedEducation and the Free Society
Linda C. Raeder is a doctoral candidate in political theory at the Catholic University of America and associate editor of Humanitas. The classical-liberal philosophy of limited government and the rule of law is in danger of being consigned to oblivion. Enemies of the free society have successfully appropriated the time-honored “liberal” name and transformed it [...]
1Oct1997 | Linda C. Raeder | 1 comment | ContinuedThe Proper Attitude Toward the Proper Role of the State
Joseph S. Fulda, a contributing editor of The Freeman, has been published frequently in scientific journals, philosophical journals, mathematics journals, law reviews, and journals of opinion. That the proper attitude toward the overreaching state is, depending on the size and scope of the Behemoth, anxiety, fear, fright, or terror is a given among classical liberals. [...]
1Oct1997 | Joseph S. Fulda | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Concise Conservative Encyclopedia by Brad Miner
Free Press 1996 318 pages $15.00 Mr. Steelman is a staff writer at the Cato Institute. The free-market movement in the United States has prospered tremendously over the past 20 years. Dozens of market-oriented think tanks and journals have been created, and an increasing number of students are becoming interested in the ideas of liberty. [...]
1Sep1997 | Aaron Steelman | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Just Society
Dr. Nash is professor of philosophy at Reformed Theological Seminary and the author of Why the Left is Not Right: The Religious Left in America (Zondervan Publishing House). Whenever one comes upon a university press book containing multiple essays by different authors, all of them academics, it’s a pretty safe bet that the book will [...]
1Oct1996 | Ronald Nash | 0 comments | ContinuedHuman Action: A Treatise on Economics
Dr. Boettke teaches economics at New York University. The most important work published since FEE’s founding in 1946, in my opinion, is Ludwig von Mises’ Human Action: A Treatise on Economics, published in 1949. Human Action is the English rewrite (not just translation) of Mises’ 1940 German work Nationalokonomie: Theorie des Handelns und Wirtschaftens. This [...]
1May1996 | Peter J. Boettke | 0 comments | Continued-
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