Thursday, October 1, 2009
Libertarianism as a self-limiting philosophy
A true libertarian should, by definition, feel no compulsion to persuade anyone to change his or her beliefs, even if those beliefs are very critical of libertarianism. Libertarianism cannot for this reason either be a reason of state, or of a political party, or even a social movement. If a so-called libertarian philosophy is prescriptive or normative, is it even libertarianism anymore?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Surely not: unless you choose a definition from which such a self-limiting conclusion follows trivially.
Most philosophical libertarians -- e.g. Robert Nozick -- defend libertarian conclusions (minimal state, taxation-is-slavery etc) on the basis of a robust conception of self-ownership, i.e. you own your body, your talents and everything that comes from the use of either and state coercion (e.g. anything that undermines your property rights) is a serious violation of your right to self-ownership. Liberty is logically posterior for most philosophical libertarians.
In any case, 'persuasion' hardly constitutes coercion. I'm sure no libertarian would approve of *coercing* someone to accept libertarian views (but which decent person would?). The self-limiting conclusion doesn't follow unless you boulster your libertarian premises with some strong form of relativism about truth and/or epistemic scepticism, and neither is *part* of the libertarian position.
(No, I'm not one, but give the devil his due etc)
Nakul.
Thanks Nakul,
That's a fair point and well taken. I wonder, though, how many advocates of libertarianism (for example on blogs) refer to this strict definition of philosophical libertarianism when they tout the superiority of libertarianism over other philosophies.
I also wonder whether in their critique of other ideologies, libertarians focus on the strict philosophical definitions of communism, socialism, or even statism, which in their ideal forms don't come across too badly.
It's another matter of course that the properties of the self can only be exercised in an environment that is social (and partly at least made possible by structures of authority like the state).
Best
Rohit
Post a Comment