Difference between revisions of "What Is Liberty?"
From Critiques Of Libertarianism
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== Libertarians Gloss Over What Liberty Is == | == Libertarians Gloss Over What Liberty Is == | ||
| − | For example | + | For example: |
| + | * If you look in [[The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism]] by [[Ronald Hamowy]], there is no entry for liberty. | ||
| + | * [[David Boaz]]'s ''[[Libertarianism: A Primer]]'' has only one sentence defining liberty: "liberty itself is the right to make choices and pursue projects of one's own choosing." (p.15.) The rest is preoccupied with examples of liberty, but not what liberty is. His confusion is obvious because he describes liberty as a "right". | ||
| + | * [[David Friedman]], in ''[[The Machinery of Freedom: Guide to a Radical Capitalism]]'' does not index liberty or freedom. | ||
| + | * Neither does [[Robert Nozick]] in ''[[Anarchy, State, and Utopia]]''. | ||
| + | * [[Milton Friedman]], in ''[[Free To Choose]]'', does not define liberty or freedom. | ||
| + | * [[Jan Narveson]], in ''[[The Libertarian Idea]]'', writes 9 pages of philosophical handwaving to get to (paraphrased) "A is free to do S if A can choose, but there is possible interference." (pp.13-21.) | ||
| + | * [[Jason Brennan]], in ''[[Libertarianism: What Everyone Needs to Know]]'', arbitrarily selects one of the many definitions of "positive" and "negative" liberty, which he defines simplistically in terms of "power to do what one chooses" and "absence of obstacles". (p.26) | ||
| + | * [[David Schmidtz]] and [[Jason Brennan]], in ''[[A Brief History of Liberty]], write "Here we categorize forms of liberty as much as our present purpose requires. We don't assume that there is any essence awaiiting our discovery; neither do we assume otherwise." They gloss over [[Gerald MacCallum]]'s [[Freedom as a Triadic Relation]] in a footnote, despite the fact the he unifies liberty with a model and dismisses the positive and negative distinctions the authors prefer. There is no mention of [[Hohfeld’s typology of rights]], and thus they conflate power, rights and liberty. | ||
| + | This absence of satisfactory definitions of liberty or freedom is typical of libertarian literature. | ||
== Liberty or A Liberty == | == Liberty or A Liberty == | ||
