All Posts Tagged With: "free society"
The Roads to Modernity: the British, French, and American Enlightenments
In 1945, Austrian economist F. A. Hayek delivered a lecture on what he called “Individualism: True and False.” The gist of his argument was that there had been a great deal of confusion and misunderstanding concerning the relationship between the individual and society, both in terms of social theory and practical politics. He juxtaposed what [...]
7Jul2010 | Richard M. Ebeling | 2 comments | ContinuedJefferson’s Economist
See update below. In 1817 the Frenchman Destutt de Tracy (1754–1836) published his Treatise on the Will and Its Effects. Thomas Jefferson was so enthusiastic about Tracy’s book that he had it translated, then edited and revised the translation himself. He renamed it A Treatise on Political Economy. Why was Jefferson so excited about the [...]
20May2010 | Sheldon Richman | 1 comment | ContinuedWhat We Believe
The Foundation for Economic Education, publisher of this magazine since 1956, is now in its seventh decade, and I am now in my seventh month as its president. As we expand the outreach of our programs and publications, now is a good time to remind our readers who we are and what we believe in. [...]
2Mar2009 | Lawrence W. Reed | 8 comments | ContinuedThe Ideas of Liberty and FEE
The great University of Chicago economist Frank Knight wrote in 1921 that it makes vastly more difference practically whether we disseminate correct ideas among the people at large in the field of human relations than is the case with mechanical problems. For good or ill, we are committed to the policy of democratic control in [...]
1Nov2008 | Donald J. Boudreaux | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Political Sociology of Freedom: Adam Ferguson and F. A. Hayek
When I was a young economics major back in the 1970s, one of the standard arguments that many of my professors would hurl at me was: “Your ideal of free-market capitalism may have been all right 200 years ago, when society was a lot simpler, but in a society as complex as ours is today, [...]
22Apr2006 | Richard M. Ebeling | 0 comments | ContinuedJoseph P. Overton: Character for a Free Society
A person’s character is nothing more and nothing less than the sum of his choices. You can’t choose your height or race or many other physical traits, but you fine-tune your character every time you distinguish right from wrong and act accordingly. Your character is further defined by how you choose to interact with others and the standards of speech and conduct you uphold.
1Oct2003 | Lawrence W. Reed | 1 comment | ContinuedAn Open Letter to My Parents
Dear Mom and Dad: I suppose I’m typical: not until my own child came along did I reflect seriously on the sacrifices you made and on the challenges you confronted in raising my siblings and me. There’s so much to thank you for. But here I focus on what is surely your most precious gift [...]
1Jul2002 | Donald J. Boudreaux | 3 comments | ContinuedA Think Tank for Those Who Don’t Think
The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong,” wrote John Maynard Keynes, “are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed the world is ruled by little else.” Keynes was wise to include the phrase, “both when they are right and when they are wrong.” Unfortunately, it’s [...]
1Jan2002 | Lawrence W. Reed | 1 comment | ContinuedProperty Is Freedom
Capitalism is liberating. Maverick feminist Camille Paglia acknowledges that it was capitalism that liberated women. In this issue of Ideas on Liberty Andrew Bernstein points out that it was capitalism that enabled black entrepreneurs to advance in spite of racism and Jim Crow. Undoubtedly, capitalism is the greatest force for individual liberation the world has [...]
1Oct2001 | Sheldon Richman | 2 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 | ContinuedThe Nature and Significance of Economic Education
For many years I have been fascinated by what at first glance seems a paradoxical feature in Ludwig von Mises’s attitude to the economics he taught. I believe that this seeming paradox in the life and work of my revered teacher can provide us with the key to understanding the role of economic education (and, [...]
1Oct1998 | Israel M. Kirzner | 0 comments | ContinuedMust the News Media Be Inimical to Freedom?
It would be easy to conclude that there is an intrinsic conflict of interest between the news media and liberty. Whether intended or not, news coverage by and large seems consistently to undermine the classical liberal premise that society essentially runs itself without central direction. There are multiple explanations for that phenomenon. It has long [...]
1Sep1996 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Free Society
Failure to go back to first principles in considering what government should do lies at the heart of the sterility of so much of today’s public debate on the issues. Lansing Pollock’s The Free Society seeks to fill that void by providing philosophical foundations for his version of limited government libertarianism. His freedom principle is [...]
1Aug1996 | Robert Batemarco | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Welfare State: Promising Protection in an Age of Anxiety
Anxiety, according to The Random House Dictionary, denotes “distress or uneasiness of mind caused by apprehension of danger or misfortune.” By this definition, the twentieth century qualifies as an age of anxiety for Americans. There is irony in this condition, because in many respects we twentieth-century Americans have enjoyed much more security than our forebears. [...]
1May1996 | Robert Higgs | 1 comment | ContinuedEducation and the Free Society
Dr. Roche is president of Hillsdale College and author of 12 books. His latest book is The Fall of the Ivory Tower: Government Funding, Corruption, and the Bankrupting of American Higher Education (Regnery Publishing, 1994). From 1966 to 1971, he was director of seminars at the Foundation for Economic Education. From 1971 to 1990, he [...]
1May1996 | George Roche | 1 comment | Continued-
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