All Posts Tagged With: "ethics"
Herbert Spencer: Libertarian Prophet
At the time of his death a century ago, the English social theorist Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) was widely considered one of the most significant thinkers of his era, a scholar of encyclopedic learning and enormous vision whose works formed a regular part of university curricula in philosophy and the social sciences. Today he is seldom [...]
7Jul2010 | Roderick T. Long | 5 comments | ContinuedCapital Letters — Does Utilitarianism Deserve Bashing?
In an otherwise meritorious article (“The ‘Risk’ of Liberty: Criminal Law in the Welfare State,” September 2008), Michael N. Giuliano parrots the tiresome old bashing of utilitarian ethics. (He sometimes says “consequentialism,” but since versions of utilitarianism make up almost the entire set of consequentialist doctrines, the distinction is unnecessary here.) “The main component of [...]
27Apr2009 | mnolan | 2 comments | ContinuedOught Implies Can
Too often ethical pronouncements have an air of hubris about them, as the pronouncer simply assumes we can do what he says we ought to do. By contrast, economics demands some humility. We always have to ask whether it’s humanly possible to do what the ethicists say we ought. To say we ought to do something we cannot do, in the sense that it won’t achieve our end, is to engage in a pointless exercise. If we cannot do it, to say that we ought to is to command the impossible.
24Apr2009 | Steven Horwitz | 35 comments | ContinuedBook Reviews – September 2007
- The Unknown Gulag: The Lost World of Stalin’s Special Settlements
by Lynne Viola Reviewed by Richard M. Ebeling
- In our Hands: A Plan to Replace the Welfare State
by Charles Murray Reviewed by Michael Tanner
- Actual Ethics
by James R. Otteson Reviewed by Tibor Machan
- Black Americans and Organized Labor: A New History
by Paul Moreno Reviewed by George C. Leef
1Sep2007 | George C. Leef | 0 comments | Continued
Visible and Invisible Hands
Douglas Den Uyl is vice president of educational programs for Liberty Fund. Douglas Rasmussen is a professor of philosophy at St. John’s University . They co-wrote Norms of Liberty: A Perfectionist Basis for Non-Perfectionist Politics (Pennsylvania State University Press). It has often been said that markets are led “as if by an invisible hand” to [...]
1Apr2007 | Douglas B. Rasmussen | 2 comments | ContinuedPsychiatry: Disease Inflation
In his classic, The Economic Consequences of the Peace (1920), John Maynard Keynes observed: “Lenin was certainly right. There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it [...]
1Mar2006 | Thomas Szasz | 0 comments | ContinuedWhy Freedom Matters
The future of civilization depends on preserving and spreading freedom. As a moral principle, freedom means we ought to respect private property rights, broadly understood as the rights to life, liberty, and property. As a practical matter, when private property rights are protected by law, individuals will be free to trade for mutual gain and [...]
1Jul2005 | James A. Dorn | 0 comments | ContinuedVices and Crimes
Susan Lee, of the Wall Street Journal‘s editorial board, accuses libertarians of an “annoying optimism,” but her article “Sex, Drugs and Rock ‘n’ Roll” (February 12) is enough to make even the most sanguine libertarian glum. It’s a little discouraging at this late date to see libertarianism yet again described as a brand of moral [...]
1May2003 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Driving Force of the Market: Essays in Austrian Economics by Israel M. Kirzner
Routledge · 2000 · 320 pages · $100.00 Reviewed by Frederic Sautet A new book by Israel Kirzner is like a new movie by a great director whose work and style are familiar, but who always surprises his viewers with new ways of exploring his lifelong themes. In fact, “exploring” is a word that describes [...]
1Nov2001 | Frederic Sautet | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Self-Imposed Poverty of Economics
Tibor Machan is a professor of philosophy at Chapman University. David Brown is the editor of The Daily Objectivist (www.dailyobjectivist.com), a webzine. Life is more than a game, and human beings are more than rule-bound strategists. Moral values are possible. Authentic allegiance to such values is possible. Too obvious a point to debate, you think? [...]
1Dec2000 | and Tibor R. Machan | 0 comments | ContinuedUniversal Values
I’m writing these words on my son’s first day at school. Well, really, today is his first day at pre-school. Thomas is only three. Nevertheless, in just a few minutes he and his mommy will walk a few blocks to the Immaculate Conception School here in Irvington, meet his teacher and classmates, and set foot [...]
1Dec2000 | Donald J. Boudreaux | 2 comments | ContinuedUnrugged Individualism: The Selfish Basis of Benevolence and Generosity: Virtue in Civil Society
Andrew Cohen teaches philosophy at the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point. Critics often wonder how an ethics of self-interest has room for good will toward others, since it seems that egoism demands a ruthless unconcern for others. According to this caricature, egoists must cherish independence and eschew helping or being nice to other people. Is [...]
1Nov1998 | Andrew I. Cohen | 0 comments | ContinuedCinema and the Capitalist Hero
Edward Younkins is professor of accountancy and business administration at Wheeling Jesuit University, Wheeling, West Virginia. The businessman has not fared well in film. Moviemakers have often attacked business and industry for destroying an old communal order based on equality and have lamented the businessman’s preoccupation with material success and the dominance of large organizations [...]
1Jun1998 | Edward W. Younkins | 0 comments | ContinuedOn Trial Again
Ms. Kapushion is a freshman at Hillsdale College, Hillsdale, Michigan, where she is majoring in economics with a particular emphasis on the Austrian school of thought. For the last three years, beginning at age fifteen, I have taught myself philosophy straight from the great works of Western thought, and have formally and informally studied economics. [...]
1Mar1997 | Meredith Kapushion | 1 comment | ContinuedEbenezer Scrooge and the Free Society
Behaving in a self-interested manner does not mean disregarding others. On the contrary, because we are social beings who depend on, and often care deeply about many others around us, a sound attention to our self-interest must include a great deal of concern for others.
1Dec1988 | Howard Baetjer Jr. | 11 comments | Continued-
The Latest
Contraception: Insuring the Uninsurable
Update below. Controversy rages over the Obama administration’s mandate that all employers – including... Read More
The Snow Plowers’ Petition
The following might have happened in a small college town in upstate New York… In a cold and snowy... Read More
Super Bowl versus Education?
In the spirit of Super Bowl weekend I’d like to deconstruct a Facebook status update that a friend... Read More
Capitalism, Corporatism, and the Freed Market
When a front-running presidential contender tells the country that thanks to Barack Obama, “[w]e are... Read More
Creating Jobs versus Creating Value
Picking on New York Times columnist Paul Krugman is one of the largest participation sports on the Internet.... Read More
