Philosophical Criticisms Of Libertarianism
Part of the "Critiques of Libertarianism" site.
http://world.std.com/~mhuben/libindex.html
Last updated 04/17/10.
Libertarians make many claims about how wonderful their philosophy is,
but many philosophers think differently.
This is a new index (3/04), and many other entries should be added here
as well. The goal will be not to overlap the Rand, Nozick, Friedman,
and other categories too badly.
Links
-
"What's Wrong With Libertarianism" [PDF]
"The Libertarian Straddle: Rejoinder to Palmer and Sciabarra" [PDF]
-
Jeffrey Friedman, editor of
Critical Review
magazine, details how libertarian philosophy and economics rely on
each other, and neither can bear the weight.
-
Left Libertarianism: A Review Essay
(PDF)
-
Barbara Fried brilliantly dissects the notion of self-ownership by left
and right libertarians, and finds that the idea doesn't really work to
establish the ideas of either.
-
NEW 5/06:
Rothbard as a philosopher
-
Conservative philosopher Edward Feser says: "he seems incapable of
producing even a minimally respectable philosophical argument, by which
I mean an argument that doesn't commit any obvious fallacies or fail to
address certain obvious objections." Ouch! Rothbard's argument for
self-ownership is dissected.
-
NEW 9/06:
Ayn Rand Contra Human Nature
-
Greg S. Nyquist provides perhaps the most extensive criticism of Rand.
He finds that her assumptions about human nature do not match scientific
knowledge of human nature. A blog based on his book.
-
NEW 9/06:
Blog: Ayn Rand Contra Human Nature
-
Daniel Barnes has started a blog for the discussion of Greg Nyquist's
'A.R.C.H.N' and other criticisms of objectivism.
-
NEW 4/10:
A Dilemma for Libertarianism
-
Professor Karl Widerquist argues that libertarian principles of acquisition and transfer without regard for the pattern of inequality do not support a minimal state, but can lead just as well to a monarchy with full the full power of taxation without violation of self-ownership.
Print References
The links here are to
Amazon.com, through their associates program, primarily because of the
review information. Books without links are generally out of print,
and can often be easily found at
AddAll Used and Out Of Print Search.
Good sites for bargain shopping for sometimes expensive new books are
Online Bookstore Price Comparison
and
AddAll Book Search and Price Comparison.
Both of those list applicable coupons. Another is
BookFinder.com.
-
Harry Brighouse
"Justice (Key Concepts)"
-
Contains 20 pages of criticism of Friedman and Nozick's ideas of justice.
-
Will Kymlicka
"Contemporary Political Philosophy: An Introduction"
-
Oxford University Press, 1991.
Now the standard text in the field; very highly
regarded. Has a long chapter on libertarianism. Not at all kind to it.
Copyright 2007 by Mike Huben ( mhuben@world.std.com ).
This document may be freely distributed for non-commercial purposes if it is reproduced in its textual entirety, with this notice intact.