In Rothbard’s vast compendium of economic wisdom, the great book Man, Economy, and State, we read much that has not yet been properly popularized. His production theory, for example, is quite different from the standard account. I have tried to distill his theory into this synopsis, but it is by no means the only part [...]
The Limits of Intellectual Property
August 7, 2009 By 10 Comments
Introduction Intellectual property is the presumed right of the creator of an idea to certain controls over all the physical forms in which his idea is recorded. The extent of this control may be different depending on whether the idea is considered to be copyrighted, patented, or trademarked, but the essential principle is the same [...]
Voluntary Slavery
May 28, 2009 By 1 Comment
The Foundations of Knowledge 1
May 22, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Here’s another philosophical essay! Just keep checking up on my future posts here and you will see how this is all ultimately related to libertarian principles, trust me! Oh, I should probably mention just as a disclaimer that you should not conclude from this essay that I don’t believe in science. I totally do! It’s [...]
The Violation of Rights
April 25, 2009 By 4 Comments
In a previous post, I have said that the progress of rights is constrained by two principles, that of homesteading and consensual exchange. The first says that property may not be acquired from nature without demonstrating ownership in some way. Originally this must require altering it some obvious way, but as a society develops a [...]
Statism and the State of Nature
April 18, 2009 By Leave a Comment
In this post I discuss some differences between libertarian theory and theories of the state, particularly concerning ideas about the state of nature. The state of nature is a standard thought experiment for political philosophers in which we try to imagine a time before people had organized themselves and try to imagine how a [...]
The Foundations of Rights and the Capitalism of Law
March 26, 2009 By 5 Comments
In this post I will discuss the nature of rights and the principles of homesteading and consensual exchange. This is certainly a more fundamental issue than the one discussed in a previous post, in which I described how a system of law can arise out of the network of contracts between people in a free [...]
The Nature of Ethics
March 12, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Free Market Law
February 19, 2009 By 4 Comments
Discourse on the sources in my natural law presentation.
February 10, 2009 By 2 Comments
Here you will find a list of the sources I referenced in my presentation and my thoughts on them. There are books that are specifically on libertarian philosophy as well as more general philosophy from non-libertarians. I’d recommend that everyone read all of them immediately. Man, I can’t believe I wrote all this! You’d better [...]
