Libertarianism Defended

Front Cover
Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2006 - 348 pages
Ever since the publication in 1974 of Robert Nozick's 'Anarchy, State and Utopia', libertarianism has been much discussed within political philosophy, science and economy circles. Yet libertarianism has been so strongly identified with Nozick's version of it that little attention has been devoted to other than Nozick's ideas and arguments. While Nozick's version of libertarianism has preoccupied the academic discussion Nozick himself has not responded to the many criticisms raised and yet other defenders of libertarianism have not remained silent. Jan Narveson, Loren Lomasky, Eric Mack, Douglas Rasmussen, Douglas Den Uyl and many others have contributed many impressive arguments of their own in support of the libertarian idea that a political system is just when it successfully secures the rights of individuals understood within the Lockean classical liberal tradition. In this book, Tibor R. Machan analyses the state-of-the-debate on libertarianism post Nozick. books and other publications, he examines closely the alternative non-Nozickian defenses of libertarianism that have been advanced and, by applying these arguments to innumerable policy areas in the field, Machan achieves a new visibility and prominence for libertarianism.
 

Contents

Defending Libertarianism
1
INDIVIDUALISM AND LIBERTY
11
Is It Responsible to be Free?
13
Here to Stay?
21
Justice Self and Natural Rights
31
Individualism and the Vitality of Community Life
71
Economics and Human Values
83
Finding the Rational Man
97
Between Parent and Child
215
Should Ads for Hazardous Goods be Banned?
223
HARD AND SOFT STATISM
231
The Ideology of Death that Will Not Die
233
Libertarianism and Conservatism
241
Socialism Redux on the Horizon
261
Two Philosophers Skeptical of Negative Liberty
269
Does Libertarianism Imply the Welfare State?
285

A Positive Libertarian View of Government
121
Liberalism and Atomistic Individualism
125
LIBERTARIANISM PER
145
Allies After All?
147
Robert Nozick and the Libertarian Alternative
163
Will Technology Make Us Free?
185
How Critical is Critical Legal Studies?
191
Should You Apologize?
203
Democracy in Public Life and Corporate Management
303
CONCLUSION
311
The Dependence of Equality on Liberty
313
Why Agreement Is Not Enough
321
Against Fairness
335
Epilogue
341
Index
343
Copyright

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About the author (2006)

Tibor R. Machan is R. C. Hoiles Professor of Business Ethics and Free Enterprise at Chapman University in Orange, California, USA. He teaches at Chapman University's Argyros School of Business and Economics and is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, California, USA.

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