Download or read book The Moral Libertarian Perspective written by TaraElla and published by TaraElla. This book was released on 2022-04-05 with total page 179 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Compared to all other available options, liberalism is still the most morally sound path for Western democratic societies going forward, and most likely to get us to the best resolution for the controversial social issues we face. This book will make the case for this argument. The book will also talk about ways to make liberalism meaningful again, including on grounds of morality, tradition, family and community. In our moral system, the post-Enlightenment Western moral system, it is generally held that people should be entirely responsible for their own actions. Indeed, I would argue that, if this principle does not hold, our whole moral system would collapse. Hence, to be moral, in the context of our code of morality, is to be fully responsible for our own choices, our own decisions, and our own actions, and to make sure that these don’t result in negative outcomes, especially on other people. Our moral system places a particular emphasis on individual accountability and responsibility, and for our moral system to work, our culture and politics must support these notions clearly, and to the fullest extent possible. Furthermore, the individualistic nature of Western morality means that, whenever power is concentrated in a few hands, those few people will exercise their power solely according to their own sense of morality, not because it’s their fault, not because it’s the system’s fault, but because it’s what Western morality actually expects people to do. In this situation, there will inevitably be a lack of moral accountability, which means a lack of moral responsibility. The Moral Libertarian principle of Equal Moral Agency for every individual is a principle derived from the individual accountability requirements of the Western moral system, and seeks to prevent lack of moral accountability. It ensures, as much as possible, that nobody has moral agency over another person’s actions, and that every person can act according to their own moral agency. This is where I believe the true heart of liberalism lies, and it is why I say that liberalism is the best expression of morality, as it is commonly agreed upon in our shared moral system. Given our individualistic moral code, I believe this is the only way to ensure morality is upheld. Anything else would violate the basic assumptions of our moral code, which would lead to deep confusion about what constitutes morality, as interwar Europe under fascism had shown, in a very disastrous way. This book incorporates the best content from The Moral Libertarian Horizon Volumes 1, 2, 4 and 5, and is intended to provide a more complete picture on the Moral Libertarian philosophy.
Download or read book The Moral Libertarian Horizon Volume 1 written by TaraElla and published by TaraElla. This book was released on with total page 81 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How does liberalism's dedication to distributing liberty equally make it a moral ideology? To answer this question, we need to first look at what liberty is. Liberty is the power an individual has over their own actions, their ability to put their ideas into action. Therefore, looking at it from a moral perspective, liberty is moral agency, i.e. the ability to act in accordance with one's moral compass. An equitable distribution of liberty therefore ensures an equitable distribution of moral agency. In this way, liberalism ensures that every individual in society has an equal share of moral agency. At this point, we need to turn to the fact that liberty (and hence moral agency) are also finite resources: if some have more, others must have less. If lords can command slaves (therefore having more liberty), slaves will not be able to act according to their own moral compass, and thus have no moral agency. Therefore, in an equal distribution of liberty (and hence moral agency), everyone can have full moral agency over their own beliefs and actions, but nobody can have moral agency over another. This, I would argue, makes liberalism the ONLY morally valid ideology. Since all human beings are morally flawed to some extent, allowing some humans to have moral agency over others is morally impermissible. Allowing a lord to command a slave as he pleases means that the slave must commit an immoral act even if the act is both objectively immoral (as in absolute truth) and known to be immoral by the slave, as long as the the act is not known to be immoral by the lord (or alternatively he is a depraved lord and does not care). This has several consequences. On an individual level, the slave would be morally responsible (at least in his conscience, and also by the laws of religion for those of us who are religious) for commiting a moral wrong, knowing that it is wrong, but not being able to resist anyway. On a societal level, it also means that those holding power can commit severe atrocities, without the moral consciences of other people acting as a brake. Which was actually how tragedies like the holocaust happened. One may be tempted to argue that, as long as we prevent having bad governments by being vigilant voters and by putting in place national and international regulations, nothing as bad will happen again. But this is naive, because the ability to judge if governments are good is limited by the fact that politicians often lie their way into power and manipulate the political landscape once in office. It is also still true that no human being can perfectly know the absolute truth of what is morally right or wrong, and therefore, if we simply let those in power decide for everyone, there will still be plenty of injustices, even if nowhere as great as the holocaust. The principle of Equal Moral Agency is the only thing that will prevent such injustices.
Download or read book The Problem of Political Authority written by Michael Huemer and published by Springer. This book was released on 2012-10-29 with total page 391 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The state is often ascribed a special sort of authority, one that obliges citizens to obey its commands and entitles the state to enforce those commands through threats of violence. This book argues that this notion is a moral illusion: no one has ever possessed that sort of authority.
Download or read book Libertarian Free Will written by David Palmer (Professor) and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2014 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a collection of new essays on the libertarian position on free will and related issues that focuses specifically on the views of philosopher Robert Kane. Written by a distinguished group of philosophers, the essays range from various areas of philosophy including metaphysics, ethics, and philosophy of mind.
Download or read book A Pragmatic Approach to Libertarian Free Will written by John Lemos and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-03-26 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Pragmatic Approach to Libertarian Free Will argues that the kind of free will required for moral responsibility and just desert is libertarian free will. It is a source of great controversy whether such a libertarian view is coherent and whether we should believe that we have such free will. This book explains and defends Robert Kane’s conception of libertarian free will while departing from it in certain key respects. It is argued that a suitably modified Kanean model of free will can be shown to be conceptually coherent. In addition, it is argued that while we lack sufficient epistemic grounds supporting belief in the existence of libertarian free will, we may still be justified in believing in it for moral reasons. As such, the book engages critically with the works of a growing number of philosophers who argue that we should jettison belief in the existence of desert-grounding free will and the practices of praise and blame and reward and punishment which it supports.
Download or read book The Righteous Mind written by Jonathan Haidt and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2013-02-12 with total page 530 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The acclaimed social psychologist challenges conventional thinking about morality, politics, and religion in a way that speaks to conservatives and liberals alike—a “landmark contribution to humanity’s understanding of itself” (The New York Times Book Review). Drawing on his twenty-five years of groundbreaking research on moral psychology, Jonathan Haidt shows how moral judgments arise not from reason but from gut feelings. He shows why liberals, conservatives, and libertarians have such different intuitions about right and wrong, and he shows why each side is actually right about many of its central concerns. In this subtle yet accessible book, Haidt gives you the key to understanding the miracle of human cooperation, as well as the curse of our eternal divisions and conflicts. If you’re ready to trade in anger for understanding, read The Righteous Mind.
Download or read book Libertarianism from A to Z written by Jeffrey A. Miron and published by ReadHowYouWant.com. This book was released on 2010-10-08 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Libertarian principles seem basic enough - keep government out of boardrooms, bedrooms, and wallets, and let markets work the way they should. But what reasoning justifies those stances, and how can they be elucidated clearly and applied consistently? In Libertarianism, from A to Z, acclaimed Harvard economist Jeffrey Miron sets the record straight with a dictionary that takes the reader beyond the mere surface of libertarian thought to reveal the philosophy's underlying and compelling logic. Tackling subjects as diverse as prostitution and drugs, the financial crises and the government bailouts, the legality of abortion, and the War on Terror, Miron takes the reader on a tour of libertarian thought. He draws on consequentialist principles that balance the costs and benefits of any given government intervention, emphasizing personal liberty and free markets. Miron never flinches from following those principles to their logical and sometimes controversial ends. Along the way, readers get a charming and engaging lesson in how to think like a libertarian. Principled, surprising, and thought provoking, Libertarianism, from A to Z, has everything a bourgeoning libertarian - or any responsible citizen - needs to know.
Download or read book The Background and Context of Moral Libertarianism written by TaraElla and published by TaraElla. This book was released on 2021-08-14 with total page 111 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In our moral system, the post-Enlightenment Western moral system, it is generally held that people should be entirely responsible for their own actions. Indeed, I would argue that, if this principle does not hold, our whole moral system would collapse. The Moral Libertarian principle of Equal Moral Agency for every individual is a principle derived from the individual accountability requirements of the Western moral system, and seeks to prevent lack of moral accountability. Given our individualistic moral code, I believe this is the only way to ensure morality is upheld. This mean that, compared to all other available options, liberalism is still the most morally sound path for Western democratic societies going forward, and most likely to get us to the best resolution for the controversial social issues we face. The aim of this book is to illustrate more clearly the background and context in which I derived my Moral Libertarian ideas. I believe that, to truly understand an idea, we must understand its context, so that we don't take its application out of context.
Download or read book Libertarian Philosophy in the Real World written by Mark D. Friedman and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2014-12-18 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Robert Nozick's Anarchy, State, and Utopia is widely recognized as one of the most influential works of modern political philosophy. Libertarian Philosophy in the Real World not only provides a concise and accessible introduction to Nozick's ideal rights-based, minimal libertarian state, but for the first time applies this moral framework to America's liberal democracy. Mark D. Friedman clearly presents Nozick's arguments for natural rights, showing that his theory undermines the very idea of social justice, and enables libertarians to rebut the most common objections to their doctrine. The book delivers a withering moral critique of the American welfare state, with chapters devoted to property rights, freedom of expression and association, paternalism, and the state's intervention in discrete aspects of modern life such as public education and healthcare. Friedman argues that reducing the liberal democratic state to its core functions would not produce the sort of moral catastrophe that might make us reconsider our commitment to individual rights. So, what is to be done? Friedman concludes with effective argumentative strategies for moving American politics in a more libertarian direction. Ideal for undergraduates and above studying political philosophy, political science, political ideology, rights and public policy, this text provides crucial insights into libertarian theory and its application.
Download or read book Freedom and Virtue written by George W. Carey and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2003-07 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The long-running debates between between conservatives and libertarians are vigorous and highly charged, dealing with ideas about the very nature of liberty and morality. Like no other single work, Freedom and Virtue explores what unites and divides the adherents of these two important American traditions—shedding much light on our current political landscape.
Download or read book Wrongness Wisdom and Wilderness written by Tal Scriven and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 1997-06-12 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This surprising work may well change our ideas about what libertarianism is and what it can be. Tal Scriven elaborates and defends a libertarian theory of social ethics that can support welfare, reverse discrimination, and environmental preservationism; biocentrism, Nietzschean perspectivism, and laws requiring good Samaritanism; and utilitarianism, the social contract theory, and legal moralism—all at the same time. In the process, he offers strikingly original analyses of figures as varied as Plato, Hume, Rousseau, Kant, Mill, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and Dewey. The first part of the book articulates a libertarian approach to the ethics of social policy, arguing that the principle of utility should be understood, in judging social policy, through application of the principle of harm, or wrongness. Part II draws on Plato, Nietzsche, and Mill to give an account of ideas relevant to moral reflection on individual lives, analyzing various theories of prudential wisdom that apply to the private realm of purely personal action. Part III deals with our relationship, as individuals and societies, to nature. Scriven argues that nothing logically prevents a well-constructed libertarianism from supporting environmental-ethics positions at least as radical as biocentrism, although he finds deep problems with going as far as ecocentrism and its postmodern variants.
Download or read book Libertarianism written by David Boaz and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2010-02-23 with total page 548 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tens of millions of Americans, from Generation X-ers to baby boomers and beyond, are rediscovering libertarianism, a visionary alternative to the tired party orthodoxies of left and right. In 1995 a Gallup poll found that 52 percent of Americans said "the federal government has become so large and powerful that it poses an immediate threat to the rights and freedoms of ordinary citizens." Later that year, The Wall Street Journal concurred, saying: "Because of their growing disdain for government, more and more Americans appear to be drifting—often unwittingly—toward a libertarian philosophy." Libertarianism is hardly new, but its framework for liberty under law and economic progress makes it especially suited for the dynamic new era we are now entering. In the United States, the bureaucratic leviathan is newly threatened by a resurgence of the libertarian ideas upon which the country was founded. We are witnessing a breakdown of all the cherished beliefs of the welfare-warfare state. Americans have seen the failure of big government. Now, in the 1990s, we are ready to apply the lessons of this century to make the next one the century not of the state but of the free individual. David Boaz presents the essential guidebook to the libertarian perspective, detailing its roots, central tenets, solutions to contemporary policy dilemmas, and future in American politics. He confronts head-on the tough questions frequently posed to libertarians: What about inequality? Who protects the environment? What ties people together if they are essentially self-interested? A concluding section, "Are You a Libertarian?" gives readers a chance to explore the substance of their own beliefs. Libertarianism is must reading for understanding one of the most exciting and hopeful movements of our time.
Download or read book Conservatives Or Socialists Classic Reprint written by John Buckingham Pope and published by Forgotten Books. This book was released on 2018-02 with total page 74 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from Conservatives or Socialists? The labours of Parliament in ruining Ireland would not have ceased yet, had it not been for the fact that the united ingenuity of both parties is unable to solve the problem of extracting blood from a stone. Having squeezed the lemon dry, Parliament is now allowed to rest from its destructive duties. The landlords have been recently advised to agitate; but it is far too late for agitation, for now nothing can save them. It is for the purpose of preventing the people of England from finding themselves in the position of the Irish landlords, that I take this opportunity Of suggesting that agitation in England should come now, and not after the principle of expediency has been accepted by the Legislature; not after every succeeding measure, however wild, has been defended on the ground that Parliament has already accepted what it is pleased to term the principle of Compensation. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
Download or read book Libertarian Accounts of Free Will written by Randolph Clarke and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2006-02-23 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This text examines free will in the context of determinism on the one hand, and the notion that this choice may in fact be random and arbitrary on the other.
Download or read book The Ethics of Liberty written by Murray N. Rothbard and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2015-07-04 with total page 359 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The authoritative text on the libertarian political position In recent years, libertarian impulses have increasingly influenced national and economic debates, from welfare reform to efforts to curtail affirmative action. Murray N. Rothbard's classic The Ethics of Liberty stands as one of the most rigorous and philosophically sophisticated expositions of the libertarian political position. Rothbard’s unique argument roots the case for freedom in the concept of natural rights and applies it to a host of practical problems. And while his conclusions are radical—that a social order that strictly adheres to the rights of private property must exclude the institutionalized violence inherent in the state—Rothbard’s applications of libertarian principles prove surprisingly practical for a host of social dilemmas, solutions to which have eluded alternative traditions. The Ethics of Liberty authoritatively established the anarcho-capitalist economic system as the most viable and the only principled option for a social order based on freedom. This classic book’s radical insights are sure to inspire a new generation of readers.
Download or read book A Consequentialist Defense of Libertarianism written by Richard Fumerton and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2021-04-19 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In A Consequentialist Defense of Libertarianism, Richard Fumerton argues that empirical facts concerning consequences must always play a crucial role in a plausible defense of freedom. After making distinctions between morality and law, he defends the view that it is a fundamental mistake to think that the law should always, or even usually, attempt to mirror morality. With this framework in place, Fumerton addresses various controversial questions concerning when the law ought to side with freedom. He offers a nuanced defense of several positions shared by many "moderate" libertarians. This consequentialist defense of freedom offers a fresh perspective on some very old philosophical debates. As more people become frustrated with a perceived lack of principled attempts by established political parties to appreciate important concerns people have involving their desire for freedom, the issues discussed in this book are particularly timely.
Download or read book The Moral Libertarian Idea written by Taraella and published by . This book was released on 2020-02-12 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A ghost is hanging over the West: the ghost of liberalism. The ghost of only partly fulfilled yet already abandoned promises of life and liberty, of equality and fraternity. Classical liberalism is not quite dead yet, but nor is it truly alive. It can only watch hopelessly as far-right elements duel it out with far-left neo-Marxist (or pseudo-Marxist) tendencies, with liberty being the biggest loser of each and every battle. The right had made 'liberal' a dirty word for four decades, and now a new generation of the left is about to do the same, the two long-time enemies burying classical liberalism in a rare bipartisanship.Is it too late for liberalism? No, not really. But to return to life, it will need a life force. Life force comes from conviction, from moral principles, and from confidence. Only the moral libertarian idea, with its grounding in the one simple principle of morality that has been the unspoken core of classical liberal thought in history, will be able to resuscitate liberalism and return it to its previous vitality. Moral libertarians seek to clearly spell out their principle of Equality of Moral Agency (EMA), and vigorously apply it and defend it in the free market of ideas.Furthermore, classical liberalism has always been about building better communities and societies too. Indeed, classical liberalism both creates the conditions required for a strong and coherent society in natural conditions of diversity, and also allows individuals to use their creativity and their moral conscience to help strengthen and improve society, by contributing their best into the free market of ideas. The liberty and equality inherent in the classical liberal tradition allows communities to be strong yet diverse in its thinking at the same time; and allows new ideas to be explored while traditions to continue to grow at the same time. Seen through this light, classical liberalism is the best foundation for community building, especially in the contemporary age. As will be explained in this book, the moral libertarian view is the best way to conceptualize and apply the values of classical liberalism in a way that adequately supports this communitarian aspect of liberalism. It is through moral libertarianism that we rediscover the true soul of liberalism, which is very far from the 'greed is good' caricature.
